Is aspergers hereditary?

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Since Im adopted I dont know if anyone in my family was on the spectrum, but I wondering if people who are, typically also have children who are?
My dad studied genes and how they're passed on for years (he's a reproductive biologist) and he said a lot of people dont agree on whether or not it is in fact hereditary and can be passed on directly. But I know there are a lot of people on this forum who have children/siblings. Just curious

My mother called earlier to say she's working on my yellow binder again (i swear i have the largest yellow binder int he family which isnt even fair since im the youngest and i dont even have a significant other!) and she's attempting to determine the risk of any of my potential biological children being 'like me'. Because apparently, she's "not doing that again" in which case she will have to move to one of her 'back up plans'. (this emoji does not roll his eyes hard enough to properly express how hard i am rolling my eyes) Honestly I kinda hope the answer is yes cause i dont really want to get pregnant ever

Yes, but can also be caused by spontaneous mutation, and individual traits might not always be inherited together (a family may have a history of minor traits that may not be seen as autism unless one person has enough of them). In my own family, there are strong traits through both blood lines.

The short answer is YES. Aspergers, and autism are mainly inherited. Or that's concensus at the moment.

Except there is nothing that simple about about any aspect of autism and aspergers.

When autism was first discovered by Kanner back in the Sixties they assumed it was all "environmental" in the sense that it was a "neurosis", that could be cured by talk therapy, and that it was caused by bad parenting. Specifically the villain was moms withholding emotion, ergo the old "refrigerator mom" theory- now discredited and ridiculed.

Then they went the other way, and assumed that it was the opposite- all genetic and all inherited.

Recently the pendelum has swung a little bit back, but not all of the way. Its now considered mostly, but not entirely, genetic, or epigenetic. But parenting, and or other things (like chemicals) in the environment might contribute.

They have done twin studies, and its not 100 percent conclusive that its all inherited. But on the other hand they are finding genes in the human genome that seemed to be linked to autism spectrum disorders.

So if you just want a simplistic rule of thumb answer - then yes- if you were to go into your biological family tree you might find others with at least aspie traits if not actual aspergers (though aspies of even one generation back were rarely official diagnosed as such). And you probably would pass on some autistic traits if you had kids of your own.

It's not "inherited" in the Mendelian sense.

Neither in a dominant or a recessive sense.

It can be passed from parent to child. But then again, many Aspergian parents do not give birth to Aspergian children. And many Aspergian children have little or no autism in their families.

I don't believe people with Asperger's need "genetic counseling." I don't believe Asperger's people should be precluded, or should preclude themselves, from having children.

It is complicated.

Autism has many causes.

A kid I grew up with had severe autism and severe intellectual disability because of anoxia (a lack of oxygen to the brain at birth). This can be said to be an example of an "environmental" cause.

Many things which occur in the Neonatal portion of a person's life has great impact later on in that life.

Studies with siblings and twins indicate that autism is highly heritable.

My wife is NT, I'm AS. One of our two sons is AS, the other is as NT you can be.

It's not uncommon for it be hereditary, but that doesn't mean that all aspies have other aspie relatives. 40% seems to be an estimated number, although it could be higher seeing as many might not be diagnosed.

Yes it is. A huge number of Aspie mums or dads here on WP seem to have a child on the spectrum, and if they have more than one child they all seem to be on the spectrum.
Both me and my brother are on the spectrum, although my parents are both NTs and so are their siblings and nieces and nephews.

Yes, autism is such a stubborn f**k, it spreads like wildfire. Unless you're in my family, then you only get it if you're an offspring of my parents.

I wonder if there are any cases where two Aspie parents have all NT children. I wonder how an NT would turn out being raised in a Aspie household. I wonder how much nurture would affect their otherwise NT-hardwiring. Any cases of that?

I've heard that genes do play a part in it and that autistic people are more likely to get autistic children than NTs are, but just because someone is autistic it doesn't automatically mean their children would be too.

There are MANY mutations which cause autism.

I don't believe they are of an identical nature.

I am sure there are quite a few which arise idiopathically.

I'm a twin (non-identical) with two other sisters and I'm the only autistic. My parents aren't autistic but they each have a few traits. They've gotten along in life really well.

My second cousin is Aspie. He is in high school and very smart. He'll go far in whatever he chooses to do.

So that's all the autism in my family.

It would seem like it's passed on, as more than myself in my family seem to have many of the traits, but only me and my brother have the diagnosis so far.