Older parents and autism/aspergers

It's one risk factor, but it's not the only risk factor. Family history is the biggest factor. And there's still question marks about so many other issues - maternal thyroid issues, low maternal iron levels, birth trauma...

Says the person who started the pile on

Ffs, you can't start shit then cry autism when you don't like people calling you out

No causal link between asd and parental age has been established.

To be fair you started a pile on for that specific poster, so it's only fair that you should be corrected. You want to demand that people "drop the ignorance," perhaps you should drop your arrogance and aggression.

@Grandeur

I did point out I am autistic so any chance of not piling on? It's been said already.

Yes and I recall that the correlation with older fathers is just as strong as with older mothers.

Not going to do the whole “I was only 17 and it happened to me so it’s bs” but I was 40 at his birth, DS is profoundly autistic and I wish with all my heart I’d done my homework before I had him.

I hope greater awareness will lead to proper pre-natal testing and the option for women to terminate if they choose. This is not a life I would have wished on DS, DH or me. It’s killed our marriage and is slowly killing us.

The genetic link does not in any way negate the link with advancing age.

As men age, the number of de novo mutations in their sperm rises dramatically. This has been linked with autism and with other things such as schitzophrenia.

If they were autistic themselves wouldn't they have clarified that in their posts? Otherwise it would make sense that they had an autistic child at 22, 26, etc, due to the genetic link.

You've taken personal offence to a comment that wasn't even directed towards you and responded to a perfectly innocuous post with arrogance and aggression.

No one said you did

But you clearly read that comment as if it applied to you.

Goodness me, you're hard work

I knew there was research suggesting there's an increased risk with older father's.

But a large 2014 study based on Swedish medical records hinted that the odds of autism among children born to fathers older than 45 are about 75 percent higher than for children born to fathers in their early 20s. And a 2010 analysis of Swedish data found that men over 55 are four times as likely to have a child with autism as men under 30.
Even so, the absolute chance of having a child with autism is low even for the oldest parents. The researchers in the 2017 study calculated that about 1.5 percent of children born to parents in their 20s will have autism, compared with about 1.58 percent of children born to parents in their 40s.

www.spectrumnews.org/news/link-parental-age-autism-explained/#:~:text=But%20a%20large%202014%20study,fathers%20in%20their%20early%2020s.

It goes on to cite all things that mean this could be correlation not causation.

I think there's also a greater risk with older father's and schizophrenia in children - but I though in both cases there were huge uncertainties about conditions themselves and everything surrounding that and more research is needed.

I personally think women get enough messages about declining fertility and greater risks of various conditions.

There are too many societal and economic structural reasons leading to older parents - and also decline in overall fertility rates with little political interest in making changes - and default media position is often to blame women and criticise any age they pick - completely ignore men's role in equation and external forces driving decisions.

As you are one of the posters who said you had yours younger and they have ASD.

In the same comment where I pointed out older fathers. Give it up. I don't take anything personally. I could t give a flying fuck if there is a link or not but I absolutely did not say it was untrue because I was younger.

Of course you've taken it personally

As you are one of the posters who said you had yours younger and they have ASD.

Goodness me.

I'm assuming there's a father in there somewhere.

Also, who is blaming parents for having autistic children?

You're aware not everyone on this post who has replied with an idiotic comment is autistic right?

that is why I said ‘people who may be autistic’, yes.

You've read that comment, taken it as a personal attack and then made yourself seem silly

I didn’t take it personally at all. I don’t actually think I seem as silly as you are coming across a bully.

Take a step back and chill out

No comment.

Thank you, appreciate the reply.

It's not been proven to be genetic at all

There are genetic components, and parents who have Autism are likely to have autistic children themselves

That doesn't however mean it's only genetic

Where has it been proven it's only genetic? I've just posted there is only one autistic person in my family and that includes extended family.

I don't think anyone is saying it's not genetic but simply that it not only genetic. As I mentioned leading experts says environmental factors can also be an influence.

You've tagged me but that wasnt my post.

im really sorry, fat fingers clicked on the wrong W name.

I'd appreciate an apology

erm, well that’s not a problem. I didn’t do it on purpose

There isn’t proof of that. We don’t know the exact cause(s) for sure. Genetics are thought to play a strong role but there are also thought to be other factors as well. For example low birth weight is associated with a higher incidence of autism, and so is air pollution.

which would disprove your hypothesis.

That’s not how science works though. for instance, incidence of Down’s syndrome increases with maternal age, it doesn’t stop 22 year old mothers conceiving children with Down’s. It’s just less likely. A teenage mother with a child with DS doesn’t “disprove” anything.

I have read that age (particularly of father?) is a factor but I don’t have the data. Random posters saying that they were 25 / 35 / 45 adds nothing though.

Autism is genetic. DH’s family is a multi generational family of Aspies. Where we live there are more than average the amount of aspies demographically due to industry and middle class families from that industry living in the same area . The autism service even refers to it colloquially as * disease in a non offensive way

Most school classes had multiple autistic DC in them, mine included. Everyone had kids in there 30’s here because careers came first. Seen against a backdrop of middle class professionals in other careers having kids this demographic would not stand out at all

But please do try and blame people for having autistic kids when it’s been proven ITS GENETIC

It's not. At least not according to Simon Baron Cohen who is pretty much the world's leading expert.

You're aware not everyone on this post who has replied with an idiotic comment is autistic right?

You've read that comment, taken it as a personal attack and then made yourself seem silly

Take a step back and chill out