Link between progesterone and autism?

[firsttimepregnanthelp]

I am feeling a bit worried because I have been advised to take progesterone pessaries until 12 weeks as I have a short luteal phase but I have come across some studies linking it to autism in boys. Does anyone know anything about this? Should I be worried? I know autism wouldn't necessarily be the end of the world and I don’t want to offend anyone with this post but it’s not something I want to cause my baby to have if I can avoid it.

This is not something I have heard of before. Can you link to the studies you read?

@OrsolaRossoyes here are two https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6252360/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278584618301994

I don’t know how long you’ve been trying to conceive, but look at it this way OP- if you don’t conceive and hold onto a pregnancy then you’re potentially looking at IVF down the road, which is actually associated with a higher risk of autism. There are risks and benefits to everything!

Have you read the studies in depth and compared to the average ASD rates?
At a quick glance the studies showed around a 1% ASD risk - google suggests the 'normal' risk is between 1-3% worldwide. So I wouldn't at first glance take it to mean any increased risk.
The studying linking it to boys does state the gender split wasn't even and was boy heavy so that might be why. It acknowledges it might not be representative.

I took progesterone in my last pregnancy for reference so understand the worry.

The increased prevalence of ASD appears to be "statistically significant" but not significant in any real terms. less than 0.05% increased risk? I am not a scientist but to me that doesn't even seem statistically significant, never mind in real life.

The risk to your pregnanct of NOT taking the progesterone, on the other hand, are notable.

This seems like an absolute no brainer to me.

I think when you have struggled to get pregnant - the anxiety can be all consuming. I know. I suffered migraine-like headaches until after my 9 week scan which my doctor told me was likely anxiety. And certainly, the, moment I got that "all clear" the headaches disappeared.

But try to be rational about this. You are pregnant and they're doing everything they can to help you stay pregnant.

Oh I've been there. A rough time conceiving, recurrant miscarriage and a high risk screening result had me googling absolutely everything. In the end I think recognising that the Internet has so much information available that there will be studies and articles on everything helps. Especially links to autism that seems very topical at the moment. I found something similar about low papp a and autism. My daughter is too young to say for sure that she doesn't have it but she seems totally typical for her age.

Thanks everyone, there is far too much info out there! Time for me to step away from Google

Anything mentioning specifically in boys would raise my alarm bells. Autism isn’t more prevalent in boys, it’s under diagnosed in girls.