To think that taking Sertraline when pregnant caused my son's ASD?

Two weeks ago my mum misspoke and asked me if the medicine I took while pregnant caused ds autism. It's hard enough to not blame yourself without thinking others are blaming you too

I worry about it as well but have nothing to tell me that's what caused his autism so I try not to believe it was me (easier said than done)

OP people are either autistic or they're not.

I am increasingly convinced that ASD is actually a descriptor for a range of different conditions, all of which give a social deficit. For example, some will be genetic, some brain damage, some triggered by environmental factors. This also explains the spectrum. My son is the mirror of his father and very classically ‘Asperger’s’. My daughter is not on the spectrum and has a different dad. So in my mind, the cause of my son’s autism is genetic. It often seems the case that Asperger’s type presentation comes from one or both parents.

I did everything advised while I was pregnant, and still found ways to blame myself for ds’ autism. It’s all over our family.

I don’t think for one minute sertraline caused your child’s autism. There will have been a very good reason that you needed to take it throughout pregnancy - without it it could have caused more harm to your child.

Is it possible to be correlation rather than causation? ASD runs in families and depression (and therefore AD use) is very common in people with undiagnosed NDs.

My two both have autism and I was not taking anti depressants before or during pregnancy.

They also didn't have the MMR because that whole Wakefield bollocks had come out but not yet been discredited so we went private for single vaccines instead.

They are autistic because I am autistic and I am autistic because autism runs in my family. It's genetic.

Honestly , there is no link , it is totally genetic , the brain is just wired differently and it often runs in families .Please do not blame yourself because it is absolutely not your fault 💐.

My sister and I have ASD and the only thing I can think of that would have contributed was my parents were older when they had us.

Neither of them were taking any type of medication.

I took antidepressants while pregnant as it is safe to do so. My son is ASD. I haven't for a second blamed myself and nor should you. It is genetic and not caused by SSRIs

The child with ADHD also happens to be very, very good at a particular sport. Genetic lottery.

My cousin was on antidepressants for the whole of her first pregnancy. Her eldest child was the calmest, sweetest baby who slept through the night almost straight away and hardly ever cried. They hit every milestone, grew into a bright, chatty child and since have grown into a well adjusted, NT adult. By the second pregnancy my cousin had been off antidepressants for a few years. That child was also bright and chatty but wouldn’t stay still unless you had them strapped in and was diagnosed with ADHD.

It’s not the tablets, it’s a genetic roll of the dice.

I didn’t take anything while pregnant and my eldest has ADHD and my youngest is Autistic. However there is masses of family history on both sides of autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia etc. so it was probably inevitable.

Please remember that even if people have taken antidepressants through pregnancy and have a child/ren that are autistic, that does NOT mean that the antidepressants caused it. Autism causes are still being researched but one of these may have been present and the antidepressant use was just coincidental. For example, genetics. Autistic people are more likely to have depression or anxiety compared to the general population, which means they're more likely to be on antidepressants. Autism can be inherited, so you may have an autistic mother who is on antidepressants and has an autistic child but the reason is genetics and the antidepressant use is purely coincidental and nothing to do with it.

My DH and I were just talking about this kind of thing earlier. We are two weird people, it's not surprising we have two weird kids. I don't know whether anyone "normal" would have wanted to marry us or if we'd both have stayed single if everyone generally married only people very local to them.

My son was also 36 weeks. He then had meningitis at 8 weeks old.
Im 100% certain either of these, or a combination of both, are the reason he has ASD.

All the evidence points to genetics: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism/the-causes-of-autism#:~:text=Evidence%20suggests%20that%20autism%20may,person%20has%20been%20brought%20up.

Bloody Andrew Wakefield has a lot to answer for making people think it can be induced by vaccinations or drug intake. Arsehole.

Be kind to yourself and don’t look beyond the science which shows it is nothing that can be determined by who you are what you do.

That's interesting - I had steroids when pregnant for my ASD child too and he was born at 36 weeks.

It’s more likely that you or your partner is autistic. Being autistic and high masking may even be the cause of your low mood

It's genetic.

I gave up taking sertraline before getting pregnant as I was anxious about taking it then. I started taking it again as soon as I’d stopped breastfeeding.

It’s looking increasingly likely that my DD is neurodiverse and her school is referring her for assessment. I suspect that I too am neurodiverse, although I’ve never been assessed. I have been diagnosed with OCD and GAD, which are particularly common in people with ASD.

So if my DD is autistic, it won’t be due to sertraline. However autism may be part of the reason I needed sertraline in the first place.

My eldest son has autism. He is the 2nd child of 4 and the only one with any ND. Neither me or my husband have any ND either, nor either of our parents or siblings.

I did not take any antidepressants during pregnancy. I did, however, have steroids due to him being born slightly early. When I had my 4th child last year, steroids were once again offered and the doctor provided me with an info sheet on current studies on a link between prenatal steroids and ASD. It would certainly explain my sons diagnosis as he is the only child I had steroids with. I turned them down last year after doing my own research.

I have an entirely unproven theory that the rise in autism (not just the rise in diagnosis) correlates to the rise in people marrying someone they meet at university or work, rather than someone very local. I think we’re more likely to partner with people with similar characteristics now, and that makes it more likely to have children further out to the edges of the bell curve. Obviously this is all general probabilities over a whole population, not an indicator of any specific pregnancy.

Two dc with ASD, never taken ADs, or progesterone, not even a paracetamol or antibiotics whilst pg.

It’s mostly genetic, runs heavily in both dh and my family. But we’ve all wracked our brains to conclude what we did wrong, it’s normal to do it.