Tylenol Use In Pregnancy Probably Doesn’t Give Babies Autism

Why acetaminophen/paracetamol probably isn’t causing the autism epidemic.

Pictured: The drug in question. Did you know that all of the different names come from different parts of the very long full name N-acetyl-para-aminophenol? Photo by James Yarema on Unsplash

Pregnancy is a tough time. I’ve never been pregnant myself, but I’ve now watch my wife go through 1.6 pregnancies and it feels like an endless march through every uncomfortable and irritating physical symptom known to mankind. And then, because your immune system is suppressed, eventually you get a cold and you want to take some medicine to help with everything.

But you can’t, because there are vanishingly few things that pregnant women can easily take. The one exception is acetaminophen/paracetamol, which is generally considered safe. Except according to recent headlines, even acetaminophen isn’t safe — taking the drug while pregnant can reportedly cause autism in the baby. This is reportedly being promoted by the Trump administration as part of their desperate campaign to pin increases in the number of autism diagnoses on the things that RFK Jr. personally dislikes.

Fortunately for pregnant women everywhere, it’s very unlikely to be true. The best evidence we’ve got shows that acetaminophen is probably fine to use in pregnancy.

The Science