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Originally Posted by loveajax
I also saw a study linking it to "advanced paternal age."
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I hadn't heard that in relation to autism, but I find that interesting. My Ob/Gyn is an older gentleman and he firmly believes that the rise in many diagnosises - not just autism - is related to women having children older (and presumably the father is older too) as well as women having babies who would not previously been able to get pregnant and/or carry to term. And babies born prematurely or with medical conditions that would not have survived 20-30 years ago are now surviving. And also like Fran said about children being diagnosed that wouldn't have been 20years ago. Either because of increased knowledge or broadening of the definition of 'symtoms.'
Not that I am in
any way saying our medical advances in reproduction or being able to save infants who would previously not have survived are a bad thing. They are great advances in my opinion. Just that I do think that they
may be one of
many things effecting the big picture of the rising number of children diagnosed with many things including autism. For all the medical advances we have made in the past 20-30 years, it is also scary how little we really do know.