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?

And do the older fathers also have a higher percentage of autistic people?

I'm not sure how any genuinely useful studies can be made on this yet, given the vast number of cases which are still missed.

It's not like Down syndrome which can be very clearly identified without fail, thereby making it possible to draw clearer causative links between the age of the parents and risk.

It may be that the children of younger parents just haven't been identified yet. Some children don't get diagnosed until they are in their teens. And some children - especially girls - don't get diagnosed at all.

Until there's a far more consistent and reliable method of diagnosing autism, any links to causative factors is primarily just speculative.

A pattern of inheritance is the single thing that seems to come up time and again, so there's an increasing belief that genetics is one of the most common causes. But again, without the fuller picture on diagnosis, it's really just an idea, nothing more.

I'm autistic and my two DC are autistic. I strongly, STRONGLY suspect my mum is autistic, but she's never been diagnosed. I also think my brother is autistic.

I was reading some research a little while ago which was referencing the possibility of there being identifiable differences in the brain MRI of autistic people. If this were to be the case, it would make it much more accurate to diagnose and then carry out more accurate research into common factors/risk factors. We're not "all a little bit autistic" as sometimes is claimed - the autistic brain is believed to operate in a very different way. This might be the route that leads us to better diagnosis and in turn, more accurate understanding of the cause.

I was 20 when I had my first and 25 when I has my second. Both are autistic. My nephew is also autistic and my sister was 30 when he was born. We've been told it's genetic and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with our ages.
On a side note, I'm curious about whether mum's with thyroid issues increases the risk.

Jeez. I'm 41, with low thyroid (medicated), low iron (medicated), low vitamin D (medicated, another risk factor), father early 40s too (42). No familial history.... I'll wait and see how this pans out.

I think the link about age being 5 - 10% more is unbalanced.

Older parents are more likely to seek diagnosis because of experience, knowledge and money to diagnose. There's also a lot of social and family pressure not to assess due to stigma - we copped it - but had the financial independence and confidence to ignore it. At least that's my experience.

Genetics is unproven, but I've discovered since my DS was diagnosed that it's all through my family, either undiagnosed or kept hush-hush. It needs more discussion & investigation, not random incorrect information.

As an autistic person, having autism can be really shitty but also...

1. I have a ridiculous level of focus
2. I have the power to spot patterns where others can't
3. I am highly skilled
4. I can learn things quicker than other people

We don't have a deficiency, we just think differently.

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

Most of those would not be in their mid 40s. I know 41 year olds who had babies. I don't know any at 44/45.

The biggest factor is having family members who have autism.

It's genetic in my family. But having done some research, I'm more likely to have it due to my neurological problems.

Lots of men wait to have children.i think the genetic link probably is stronger though.

I'm pretty sure I've also read that from more than one source.

We don't have a deficiency, we just think differently.

you don't have a "deficiency". Tell that to the parent of a child with level 3 autism, severe learning difficulties, non verbal, totally unable to interact with the world around them. Autism is not one single condition, its so wide ranging.

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

Most of those would not be in their mid 40s. I know 41 year olds who had babies. I don't know any at 44/45.

I know lots of men who did though.

Surely the fact it's not agreed conclusively means you can't sit there and claim with any certainty it's genetic

There have been studies into this which also highlight other factors

I don't have a link, but there have definitely been studies to show increased paternal age is linked to Autism. It increases the chances of a child being born with Autism .

I could have phrased it better. It’s my absolute conviction that autism is purely genetic. I believe the “other factors” that some studies claim, either relate to correlation (not causation) or they relate learning disability aspects of LF autism (conceptualising LF autism as autism + LDs, whereas HF autism = autism w/o LDs).

As PPs have outlined, we still have under-diagnosis and uneven diagnosis patterns, and we lack a definitive test, so the foundations of the “mixed factors” thesis are distinctly shaky. There are a lot of genes to identify before this can all be properly formulated.

Mine’s not really a maverick view in the autism world, there’s just a lot of disagreement.

We need to consider the possibility that ND individuals ( with or w/o a dx) become parents slightly later, on average.

It's genetic. Autistic people don't turn up from nowhere. We are the offspring of neurodivergent parent/s. It's in the genes. And don't try to take it away.

Knowing both her parents are autistic, we wondered how it would present in dgd. Turned out fine. She's autistic like us.

I was reading some research a little while ago which was referencing the possibility of there being identifiable differences in the brain MRI of autistic people. If this were to be the case, it would make it much more accurate to diagnose and then carry out more accurate research into common factors/risk factors.

And once identified, they'll kill us, neuter us, or kill our children in the womb. We need to unite, before this happens. There are more of us than they think.

I think people are conflating genetic and hereditary

And once identified, they'll kill us, neuter us, or kill our children in the womb. We need to unite, before this happens. There are more of us than they think.

It will start to happen, that banding together. For so many people autism is an identity and something they wouldn’t want to lose. Besides, the world can’t afford to lose the HFAers.

Unfortunately, it will widen the schism between HFA adults and the parents of LFA children.

The changes to the DSMV weren’t particularly helpful, in that sense. Retaining a separate Aspergers classification (even if renamed) would have been better.

To a layperson, a heritable trait, genetically encoded is pretty reasonably described as “genetic”.

It’s related to genetics, environmental factors, and biology. Not just genetics alone.
My cousin is a genetic councillor/scientist and we had a lengthy discussion about this recently as my almost 70 year old father is having a child with his new wife. We don’t have a history of autism in the family but she said there is still a risk because of his age.

@SpidersAreShitheads A pattern of inheritance is the single thing that seems to come up time and again, so there's an increasing belief that genetics is one of the most common causes. But again, without the fuller picture on diagnosis, it's really just an idea, nothing more.

It's well beyond just an idea or belief, it's been clinically proven that there is a genetic link in 40 to 80% of people with ASCs.

There's a good article here

Same for me, no ASD and both dh and I have large families but ds has ASD.

@SpidersAreShitheads

If link is proven one thing that would need to be done very carefully would be the education around having a child later in life. Many have little choice - finding a partner, financial or even years struggling with infertility.

I hate this everyone could choose to have a child in their 20's thing. Also most of this education is aimed at women!