Health Buzz: Autism Risk Rises With Maternal Age

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This research is kinda cool because depending how old you are, you know when you have a higher risk at having an autistic child Ms. Blah blah blah.

Ashley of MN 4:29PM February 11, 2010

Researchers try to prove that advanced maternal age can be a risk for a child being born with autism... but what about teenage mothers? I always wondered... shouldn't they be the ones with the greater risk? Why is it that several years ago 30-35 was the perfect age to have a healthy baby, and now it is considered potentially risky??? It just doesn't make sense that teenage mothers aren't the ones at greater risk... I want to know if there is any research or study or test or even statistic stating that young mothers are also at a high risk for having a child born with ASD.

Brenda of OR 3:17PM February 10, 2010

blah blah blah.

Nancy Gonzalez of ND 3:06PM February 10, 2010

The study shows that advanced age, both paternal and maternal, increases the risk for autism. Yet, the headline implies it is only maternal age. There are so many diseases now where it has clearly been shown that advanced paternal age is a huge risk factor but women continue to bear the "blame". It is time to recognize that the aging gonad, male or female, tends to be more susceptible to mutations!

Peggy Johnson of CA 12:30AM February 10, 2010

hhhhmmm... seeing as no one is gonna do any real research, and every one out there is just blaming things, i'm gonna blame autism on global warming. see....i can blame things without quality research just as easily as any editor, author or other guy that comes along

joker of FL 6:19PM February 09, 2010

Just a quick note on interpretation of this analysis. Some might interpret age as a biological indicator, but I think an alternative interpretation is that women (and men) who have children at a later age might do so because they put their career/education/selves ahead of their desire to have children. Thus children with older parents are likely to spend less overall time with their children, which could contribute to socialization problems at critical times during the child's development. I would like to see if there are differences in the the likelihood of a child falling on the spectrum according to parental age.

Genetics-skeptic of FL 6:00PM February 09, 2010

There is a link in the article that brings up those numbers and goes more indepth to the study. This is just a snipit article to steer you into bigger ones. You should pay attention before you criticize someone.

Jaden of WA 5:42PM February 09, 2010

Why is this magazine focusing ONLY on the age of the mother, when the report says that both the age of the FATHER and MOTHER may contribute? Mothers of autistic children have enough on their plates without some media produced guilt trip brought on by faulty and biased reporting!

Sabrina of OR 5:41PM February 09, 2010

Last time I said this related to Autism I was drummed out of the debate. We want to have it all - the super mom - education careers, and a late family. So much so that *it just can't be* so we didn't allow the data in .. until now.

Tom Lynch 5:23PM February 09, 2010

There is no scientific evidence that vaccinations and autism are related (and its not because no one has tried to connect them). Just last week the academic journal that published the original study that connected the two and spurred the anti-vaccine movement actually RETRACTED the article (which is extremely uncommon) because it was so poorly done and drew inaccurate conclusions as a result. Here is a link to one of the many articles about the retraction:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/02/autism_mmr_vaccine_link_lancet.html
One possible explanation for why some people have connected vaccines and autism is that autism tends to present itself around the same time that vaccines like MMR are scheduled to be given. That would make it seem like the vaccine caused it, when in fact it didn't. It just happened to present at the same time. I also am willing to bet that there are plenty of autistic kids out there whose parents didn't vaccinate them, meaning that there must be another cause.
Please stop listening to celebrities like Jenny McCarthy or other untrustworthy sources with an agenda for your health care decisions. By doing so you are only hurting your child and others. Listen to your pediatrician, who is a trained professional and can give you the facts, or at least consult appropriately conducted medical studies (not quack science, which is definitely the category the original article falls into).
Autism is a terrible condition and I fully support finding the actual causes, whatever they may be. However, blaming a cause with no solid scientific proof doesn't help move research, treatments, or even cures forward.

Research Professional of MN 5:11PM February 09, 2010