what are risk factors for AS women wanting to conceive?

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Are there any/many risk factors for AS women wanting to conceive/have children? Especially if the partner is NT with slight AS tendencies. I know that the males carry the sex genes of the child, but what about other characteristics?

I'm stumped.

not seeking 'conception' any time soon, but would like to know for the future.

can any AS moms help?

Do you mean the genetic likelihood of one of your children having AS or are you referring to complications in pregnancy to you?

I have to say in my case, no the male genetics didn't really factor much into my oldest son having autism or my youngest son possibly having AS. I have AS, my partner is NT. As far as risk factor... if you're looking at conceving and worried about the risk of having a child on the spectrum, it's time to really take time to really think things over. Because if you have to look at things in terms of risk factors in having a child and if the answer you come up with is you really don't want to deal with a possible child on the spectrum, you might want to consider adoption because noone can guarantee you a child that isn't on the spectrum any other way.

thank you ladies. I am not necessarily worried about complications during pregnancy because of these conditions. I'm mainly concerned about the chances of this happening. I suppose it would make sense that I would have a 50/50 chance of this happening. I am not so inclined with children, although, i think that if it were my own child It would be a different story. I also worry about the dissappointment from the standpoint of an NT. (especially relatives, friends etc.) these people tend to pity anyone with some type of neaurological disorder. I wouldn't want to put myself in an "at risk" situation, where the chances are higher then not. I am not saying that I would be dissappointed if my child were to have AS or something similar, but it would make raising them a hell of a lot more complicated, considering that I exhibit these symptoms myself.

i think that the idea of adoption is pretty good. and have considered it as an alternative to having a child of my own for some time now. (if chances of me getting pregnant are impossible or harmful to the development of the fetus)

I also would like to know how your experience has been in knowing/raising children with as or autism, and how challenging it might be.

thank you kindly

One "complication" that could arise is that, since you might not be able to speak up for yourself or advocate for yourself, if you are in a hospital you could end up being jerked around, bullied, misunderstood, or mistreated. If even NTs who can stand up for themselves and speak up are mistreated in hospitals, it is worse for aspies. Make sure you trust your provider and if possible have a nurse-midwife instead of an OB, as the CNM will stay with you for the whole labor (which could be hours if not all day) and delivery as opposed to an OB who will just show up for the delivery. But once the CNM leaves, you're at the mercy of the system, so try to have someone with you who can advocate for you.

For instance after my last birth they sent a male orderly in to clean the blood of me and I was horrified and I just froze. I think an NT would have laughed and said "No way! Send someone else." I was alone there, so I just froze, wrapped the sheet around me, couldn't speak, and covered my face with my hands. When he reached to touch me I shoved his hand away but I just could NOT speak. After this happened a few time he asked me if I wanted someone else, I nodded, they sent in a female nurse who started complaining about having to do the male orderly's work .

I could go on with stories like this but you get the idea.

If you are of the mindset, you should have a homebirth. One of my births was a homebirth, it was a lot better than the hospital births in terms of the sense of invasion, but I had complications so I was one of those rare instances where it was dangerous not to be in a hospital. 90%+ of the time it is perfectly safe to give birth at home.

thank you so much ladies! Its very refreshing to hear about this from people who have actually gone through this experience first hand. I suppose if I were to ask an NT about this, they would advise against me getting impregnated in the fist place. (i'm not certain if I have AS still, but I've taken the quiz and scored very high on it, plus in doing research it appears that I exhibit these symptoms aswell) I tend to worry still. I asked my mother before if she thought that I would be able to have children and she said "yes, you're fine" (she still does not think/ know that I might be on the spectrum, i assume it is denial) regardless, I just want to know if it is more difficult for people with AS to get pregnant.

once again, many thanks!!

Statistically, there is a correlation to the age of the father at the time of conception and the risk of autism, however, this is presumably only in circumstances where the father's side carries the genetic code for ASD. The older the father, the higher the risk. In my family, my uncle on my mother's side and my nephew are both aspies and I sit in between as the only female aspie in the family. I have noted in the case of other aspie friends that their genetic codes seem to pass similarly between aunts/uncles and nephews/nieces. It's weird, but I have no reason to think this is anything more than coincidence, based on my readings of research publications. When a female aspie has kids, it seems more likely that her children will have similar diagnoses, but this is presumably because she is more aware and prepared to have them assessed. Socialization by ASD parents tends to produce ASD characteristics in their offspring but those offspring may not actually have the disorder itself, but rather the "appearance of symptoms". That's all I know on the topic. Hope some part of it helped.

Hi! Let me state categorically that having AS does NOT make it hard to conceive; My husband and I have seven children

My husband is not AS, but he does have ADD, and had dyslexia & severe coordination problems as a kid. The two of us also have very high IQ's. So our kids have a wide assortment of traits from both of us. The end result is a houseful of extremely bright, creative, wacky, wonderful, quirky, "what have we gotten ourselves into?" crazy critters

Many of my husband's relatives strongly advised us not to have kids, and were outraged that we dared to have so many. But in our midst we have a brilliant writer, a computer genius, a future biology professor, a future math professor, a talented actor, a lawer-in-the-making, and an extremely observant 4 year old who will surprise us all. I feel we are making a major contribution to society

thank you all for posting such helpful responses!

it's refreshing to see that some people on this forum are interested in sharing information with one another.

i'm not in any rush to conceive, but i just wanted to know about any possible complications or problems for an AS/PDD female.

[quote="blackdove"] I know that the males carry the sex genes of the child, but what about other characteristics?quote]

this is not entirely true.... everyone has two sex chromosomes, which contain all the sex specific (genes) traits... you are either XX (girl) or XY (boy)... you get one chromosome from each parent randomly--that's why you can't really plan to have a boy or girl. if you are a boy, then you definitely got the Y chromosome from your dad.

when talking about genes on these sex chromosomes... most genetic information is actually encoded on the X chromosome (i always joke that the Y chromosome actually only encodes for a penis!)... if you are a girl and have bad/defective genes on one of your X chromosomes, you can use your other X chromosome to provide normal gene expression. but if you are a male, and your one X chromosome is screwed up, then you are screwed too... this means that males are more prone to displaying certain abnormal genetic conditions... cause they don't have a backup copy.


this is one reason why they think more males are autistic... because there might be genes involved in autism that are found on the X chromosome and so mistakes generally tend to show up more in males cause they only have one copy. (i'm not trying to address the under-diagnosed issue)...


so this is another reason why the genetic disposition of the father is so important for several genetically inheritted conditions... cause if he has a defective X chromosome and has a daughter... then that means he automatically gave a "bad X chromosome" to his daughter... and that would mean the daughter would be dependant upon the mother to give her a good X chromosome. these odds aren't that bad--especially if the mother is not affected by ___________ genetic condtion because that means she has at least one good X chromosome to pass on to her daughter.... though keep in mind, that it is random; which chromosome either parent passes on.

if you have a boy, that means the father gave a Y chromosome and again, you come back to depending on the mother for providing a normal X chromosome... so it depends how many good/bad copies of the X chromosome to she has to potentially pass on.... to determine the condtion of the child.

daughters are also able to display these defective traits, it's just harder to do so, cause she would need to get two bad copies of the X chromosome (one from mom and dad... which is statictially harder to do)... so if you are a mom with autism, this means you probably have two bad copies of the "autism" gene*: one on each of your X chromosomes so you don't have a good copy to compensate for normal gene expression... so that makes it even more important to have a father who isn't autistic (so that he will probably have a good X chromosome to pass onto his possible daughter). on the same side of the coin, if an autistic mom has a boy, then he will most likely have autism cause he got the Y chromosome from the father and the autistic gene on the X chromosome from the mother.

*keep in mind my example is assuming that there IS ONLY (1) "autism" gene on the X chromosome that is soley responsible for causing autism.... im sure the genetic basis for autism is more complicated.... ie- involves more genes.... so that the chances of having autism in your offspring is actually less than what it sounds like from my example. was just trying to explain a little better how "sex genes" are passed along and what determines normal/defective expression.


So for your situation, i would say that it is at least a good thing that the father would be NT...

The Y chromosome that males have is basically an X minus one branch (A Y has three branches and an X has 4). Only the traits encoded on the 4th branch of the X and hence missing on the Y are affected by sex. Those specific traits (like colorblindness, hemophilia and a few others) are called sex-linked for that reason. Other traits (like a specific hair color) are not sex linked so they are not predominant in males as opposed to females. To the best of my knowledge, the autism gene has not been identified--so it may or may not be sex linked. Also, many traits are determined by the interaction of several different genes, not just one. Because autism is a spectrum I would assume the latter to be the case.

i was using the "autism" gene as a simple example to explain genetic inheritances that might be important to consider when planning to have a child.... i fully realize that no " autism gene" has been identified (nor is it definitely sex-linked--again that is just a common theory which i addressed in my example) and i acknowledged that autism is likely due to a variety of genetic components.

as for the Y chromosome... all chromosomes have that "x" shape and it is possible that the Y chromosome became that way because it somehow lost a branch.... but the Y chromosome does not code for very many genes... it just doesn't, maybe it used to, but not now... and of the very few genes that it does code for... not even all of them have a corresponding gene on the X chromosome. (we have 23 pairs of chromosomes; each pair coding for the same set of genes--excepet for our sex chromosomes) there are some Y-linked inherited conditions... but because of the sheer amount of genetic info on the X chromosome (in comparison), most sex-linked conditions are X-linked.

It's a crap shoot - whoever you may be - Best wishes
http://whitterer-autism.blogspot.com

This is a topic my husband and I are currently thinking about as well- well I think about it a lot- I'm not sure how much brain time my husband actually gives it. We have some interesting genetics. I have something very similar to AS- its a learning disability called NLD. I suspect I could also be diagnosed with AS based on my test scores and all that jazz, but I'm not that picky about my labels. My brother has full blown, Kanner-type Autism. He has moderate to severe autism, limited verbal ability, etc. He also has Cerebral Palsy and epilepsy and some brain damage from strokes and seizures he had as a young child. He will never be able to live on his own. My father likely had whatever I have- be it NLD, AS, or both. My mother has a lot of issues- I don't think she has AS, I think her issues are more mental health related, but she still doesn't have friends and stuff and I wonder if there is some gene that relates to socialization... She also has a rare genetic disorder that I am a carrier for. It can be pretty minor or it can be really nasty if someone does have it- like being put on the lung transplant list. Both her parents also had mental health issues too. My husband is mostly NT, but he does have ADD. We have our own mental health issues I suppose but they are under control. I have depression that is completely treated with medication and he has minor bipolor that is also controlled with medication, though he still has some depression/anxiety issues. And I have even more health issues lurking in my background- I am narcoleptic (and I also have a couple of wierd parasomnias). Now narcolepsy seems to have some genetic component but narcolepsy isn't that well understood I guess and the risk of passing it on isn't major, but I guess my risk of having a narcoleptic kid is greater than someone who isn't narcoleptic's risk would be. And I also have fibromyalgia. So does an aunt of mine.

Wow. What a list. Now it would be a couple of years before we did have a kid- I am only 23. And I would want to see a genetic counselor first. One thing I am thinking is that maybe my genetics shouldn't be left up to complete chance. One thing we might do is PGD- this preimplantation genetic diagnosis stuff with embryos using IVF. I don't know how sophisticated it is or what. Or maybe even using an egg donor. My husband is like a genuis- he skipped two grades in school, got his degree early too. And I have a high IQ as well. But I would want to give a kid of mine as big a chance as possible to be born without a disability. I know how very hard it is to go through life with one that will never ever go away, how it affects everything. I figure we could handle raising whatever type of kid was given to us- Autistic, disabled, etc. We have talked about that and how we would want to maybe even plan for a kid of ours to be somewhere on the spectrum. But it sure would be nice to try and give that kid a chance to not have my LD and stuff, as big of a chance as possible and the other issues.

So in about a year or so we will go to see a genetic counselor and get tested and counseled. And see an OB about what meds I could and couldn't be on and work with my doctors like my neurologist (for my narcolepsy) and stuff and plan for it way ahead of time.