WHAT IS TRANEXAMIC ACID?
The WOMAN trial is testing tranexamic acid (or TXA), a blood clot stabiliser that was discovered in Japan in the 1950’s, to see if it could become an essential tool for fighting excessive bleeding soon after giving birth. There have been a number of small trials of TXA in obstetric bleeding but the quality of the trials was poor. None had adequate allocation concealment and even in aggregate the trials were too small to assess the effects of TXA on the clinically important outcomes. TXA is a widely available medicine that is commonly used for other bleeding conditions and works by maintaining the blood clots that prevent bleeding.