Older parents and autism/aspergers

[JamSandle]

To think there is a link between older parentage and autism/aspergers, and if so, should we be doing more to educate and prepare parents for this?

Obviously an increasing number of parents are having their children later in life. Should we be doing more to make them aware of potential risk factors for themselves and their children as part of family planning?

Is there a link. That would be the first thing to establish.

Autism is genetic. There is no link about the parents age to wether they have a hottest day ofspring.

Hottest day ofspring? oh dear! * autistic offspring

“One 2017 study based on whole-genome sequencing of nearly 5,000 people suggests that parents in their mid-40s are 5 to 10 percent more likely to have a child with autism than are 20-year-old parents.”

The link between parental age and autism, explained

My friends son has severe autism and she was 27 when she had him. While being older may be a risk factor in a lot of things, autism is likely to be more down to genetic. You can quite often see a pattern in families especially with more adults being diagnosed now.

How many people in their mid 40s are having babies though?

And how many of those parents are themselves autistic?

IS there a link? Would be interested to see any research.. I have 2 Aspie kids, born when I was 40 & 45. On the other hand, DS has two born when he & DDIL were in their late 20's, early 30's..

I was 20 & 23 when I had my autistic children. 11 years later at age 34 I was diagnosed with autism. It's genetic.

My main issue (on a different matter) is my brother was diagnosed as a child, but I was missed simply because I'm a girl.

Yes it's a known risk factor. But it's not the only reason. I have two "borderline" kids and two in sen schools.

For us it's proven genetics. The two in sen schools have the same duplication, the other two don't.

I suspect my socially inept mum has asd. I alway though she was shy, angry. My dh is a extrovert but carries this duplication. Combination of "bad" genes I guess ( that's the wrong word, but it's a shitty hand. We don't have a easy life).

Yes definitely needs a whole world of education on ASD. In every aspect

Well, I mean, you can think there's links between anything, really. Whether scientific research can provide evidence and explanations is another. ASD is currently understood to be mostly a genetic based condition but has various neurobiological basis. It's such a wide spectrum.. YABU

I'm sure I have read some articles on relationship between increased paternal age and increased risk of autism. Not sure if correlation only.

My eldest son is autistic my youngest is not, which would disprove your hypothesis. A 5% to 10% increase in risk based on one study really wouldn't justify panicking people.

How many people in their mid 40s are having babies though?

Lots of men, actually.

Anyhow I was in my 20s when I had my first 2, then my youngest when I was 33. They are all autistic, as am I. Suspect DH, but he has never been assessed.

In 2021, 30,542 babies were born to mothers aged 40 and over - around 16% of the total.

@IncessantNameChanger when DS was diagnosed the psychiatrist told us that there were seven genes linked to ASCs. And could be inherited from either parent in any combination.

Opinion may have changed now.

Autistic parents perhaps take longer to find a partner and feel ready for children, due to social difficulties. Genetically they would always be likely to have autistic children, whatever age they reproduced, but they may figure more in the older parent category, for that reason.
DH and my families contain large numbers of autistics. I am descended from the last child (by the second wife) of an ancestor in 1740, who was in his fifties when his wife conceived. Who knows whether his age produced the mutations that passed down the generations as autism, or whether he already had it.

Sorry, hadn’t cleared my calculator properly. It’s about 5%.

Of course there is a link, it's been studied previously

Will also explain why there has been an increase in ASD cases in line with average parental age creeping up

Surely you’d need to consider the socio-conditions for older parents.

Arguably, some older adults with ASD/ suspected ASD have their own caveats for being older parents - taking longer to form relationships , access to independent living delayed, lives committed to academia over intrapersonal relationships - all would create a vague trend where they constitute a greater number of older parents and therefore - assuming genetic link - a greater number of children born with ASD.

I cannot for the life of me find it but I was recently sent a study discussing High Risk of Trisomy 21 and Autism.

I found it interesting because me, my brother and my son were all High Risk for Trisomy 21 defects (nuchal translucency) but didn't have it. Instead we all have aspergers.

I wasn't an older mum though, I was 25.

I was 22 when I had my daughter... she’s autistic, people say it’s genetic but no one in my family is autistic and only my kids are and I have 5 siblings no autism diagnosed with any of their children. I have 2 with asd, daughter was born first.

My mum had her autistic kids at 18 and 20 and then I had mine at 21 and 34.

The sheer scientific ignorance in this discussion is very depressing. 'My child has autism and I was 22/26/30 when I had them. Therefore this link can't be true'. Oh dear God.

Also influenced by environmental factors not just genetics.