Autism running in families...

[JKCR2017]

So it’s always been said that asd is often genetic and runs in families and it does seem likely. DS has autism, DD is being assessed. I also believe I have ASD (it’s hard to say that without an official diagnosis but I fit all the criteria).

I’ve never known my real dad. But I do know that my half sisters have DC with autism so I assumed it was some kind of genetic on my fathers side. I’ve recently found out that some of my biological fathers brothers and sisters (so technically my aunts and uncles that I’ve never met) have grandchildren with autism.

I’m not sure what my actual question is but I just feel spun out that I have a whole family of people that I’ve never met who could be affected but I don’t even know them.

I think I’m partly overwhelmed by the whole autism thing and emotional that I don’t know my father or his family! 😰

My DS is autistic. DS2 is not. I am not. His Father is not. No blood relatives in either families are either. It’s odd because I’ve met hundreds of families the same as ours, where only 1 member has autism. Yet I’ve only met 1 family where more than 1 member is autistic. I know it’s anecdotal because in the grand scheme of things it’s not that many, but it seems odd to me 🤷‍♀️

BlackeyedGruesome - there is research that puts the incidence of autism at 7 x more likely in hEDS patients than general population.

Can I ask what a hEDS patient is?

hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.

Thanks. My son is hypermobile and has ASD.

My DS hypermobile and also has an extremely rare connective tissue autoimmune condition too (not EDS). I'm sure there's a connective tissue link with ADS.

Also - my maternal grandfather def Aspergers. I suspect my DF too. Also my nephew on DH's side just been diagnosed at 14. So it's there in both sides of our family trees.

*ASD even

spent an hour looking for it yesterday. can I remember the specific fgoogle terms I used, can I remember which device I looked at it on. can I heck. If I can find my notes I can find the author and year and go from there.

Blackeyed
There are lots of other studies referenced by number in this article on Autism, Joint Hypermobility-Related Disorders and Pain
Hopefully the one you want will be in there somewhere.
www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00656/full