If you have aspergers does that mean your father does?

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My father has never been diagnosed but if it's hereditary, does that mean he must have it? He does show some mild aspie traits such as obsession, etc. Also wondering about my aspie friends in meatspace. If their fathers must have it. Some of them are guys and some of them are girls. So does that make any difference?

Does the mother have anything to do with it. I know two half brothers. Same mother, different fathers. They both have ASD. Did they get it from their mother? (Wouldn't surprise me if she has it, she's as obsessive as her sons). So does anyone know the answer to my questions?

I can't speak for others. But I know that neither of my parents had AS. I am the the only one in the whole family to ever have it. I was also the only one in my family to be an engineer/intellectual as well. I was really the "odd" one.

In a word, no.

First up, it is impossible for a condition to always and exclusively be inherited from the father. Fathers can pass sex-linked genetic conditions onto their sons. However, if they pass them to their daughters, then mothers can also pass it on.

We don't know how autism is inherited yet, except that it is polygenetic and post-Mendelian. In other words, it isn't inherited neatly and there are multiple factors at work.

It is perfectly possible for a neurotypical father to sire autistic offspring, and equally possible for autistic women to have autistic children.

Interesting. Did an aspie guy ever have NT kids?

I agree with the Walrus, it ain't necessarily so.

As for my personal observations, my father had Aspie traits, and so does my Aspie partner's father. My son seems kind of borderline ASD. I don't think my mother had autism, nor my partner's mother. My partner's daughter is diagnosed ASD, and my partner's son probably has it, though not so strongly as the daughter. All of which would seem to suggest that if you have AS, your father is likely to have it too, but with such a small number of observations, it's hardly good evidence about the general population.

There is no single gene responsible for autism and most (is any) autistic genes are not dominant therefore there is no need for any of the parents to have Asperger to get autistic child.

It's like a bit like with the red hair color: both parents must carry the red hair gene but they don't have to have red hair themselves but red hair comes out visible only when you get two of the genes, the gene carried by mother and the one carried by father.

But autism is multiple gene condition so the parents must be carriers of some of the genes and both have to give them to the kid while not giving him the stronger, NT genes.

And also ASD condition is not 100% genetically depended (not all identical twins both have autism) so even if someone has all the genes it doesn't mean they will cause autistic condition. Pregnancy issues and the environment a kid grows up in can activate some autistic genes that would otherwise stay hidden.

Personally I clearly have a mixture of my parent genes. Some show up in my parents (rigidity and poor emotion control in my father, obsessive interests in my mother) but some of my clear traits don't show up in my parents yet do in their sisters(sensory issues in my mother's sister, lack of theory of mind in my father's sister). Therefore I suppose they are recessive genes that my parents are carriers of but they have some stronger genes to overlap and I (and my aunts) didn't get the stronger genes so the recessive ones popped up in me.


Also an aspie parent can have NT child. It's all about what genes the kid gets from both of its parents. It's especially true for aspie+NT pair but even a couple aspie+aspie can have NT child if they both still have enough NT genes (if you met one aspie you met one aspie because everyone got different set of genes, we are all a mixture of autistic and NT genes, even auties still have some NT genes) to give them to a kid. Not all NT genes are dominant to aspie genes.

For example:
There is a NT guy of dominant NT genes + some AS genes. He is a NT but carries AS genes in his genotype.
He mets a NT girl with some dominant NT genes and some recessive NT genes. She is a classic NT.

They have three kids.

1 gets dominant NT genes from father and a mixture of dominant and recessive NT genes from mother. It's a NT.
2 inherits most of the AS genes and one dominant NT gene from father (responsible for no sensory issues)+ nearly all of the recessive NT genes from mother. It's an aspie boy without sensory issues.
3 gets the Aspie genes from father and a mixture of dominant and recessive NT genes from mother. It's a NT girl with some aspie traits.

The aspie son grows up and mets an aspie girl(with sensory issues) with this set of genes: some AS genes and some recessive NT genes.

They have four childs.
1 gets the AS gene responsible for sensory issues from mother and a mixture of recessive NT genes from both father and mother. It is an NT with sensory issues.
2 gets the dominant NT gene+recessive NT genes from father and the recessive NT genes from mother. It's a clear NT.
3 gets a mixture of recessive NT and AS genes from both parents. It is an aspie.
4 gets most of AS genes from both parents and just a few recessive NT genes. It's a LFA.

The NT daughter with some aspie traits(aspie genes+ mixture of dominant and recessive NT genes) mets a boy similar to her father: his dominant NT genes are strong enough to hide his aspie genotype so he is a NT but carries AS genes.

They have 5 kids.
1 gets a random mixture of genes from mother and most of dominant NT genes+ a few aspie genes from father. It is either a NT carrying some aspie genes or NT with some aspie traits.
2 gets the NT genes (dominant or not) from mother and NT genes from father. It's a clear NT genotype.
3 gets all recessive, some dominant and some aspie genes from mother and all the aspie genes from father. He is a mild aspie.
4 gets some of the recessive NT genes from mother but also a lot of aspie genes from both parents. He is an moderate aspie.
5 is the same as the above but got really unlucky with his aspie genes distribution and activation. He is a LFA.

Most people has this genotype: A lot of dominant NT genes, some recessive NT genes and a small amount of AS genes. (NTs with a few hidden AS genes, sometimes showing a few of mild aspie traits)
They carry AS genes but not enough to give an aspie or autie status to their children(they will get a NT with aspie traits or a NT with a lot of hidden aspie genes in the worst case). But their AS genes might be enough to create an aspie or autie to their grandchildren if their kid holding a nice amount of AS genes pairs with someone with a few AS genes or at least a lot of recessive NT genes. But its still nothing certain. For example the chance of their grandchildren to be aspie or autie might be 10%(I'm quessing here). In general population the chance is apparently 1-3%.

My dad is about as NT as it gets, my mom isn't much different, both are very very social.

My father doesn't. It's interesting though that many people who have asd have parents who work in engineering and similar jobs. My father is an engineer but he is very good at fixing anything. I'm not though unfortunately.

My dad is socially ignorant my mom describes him.

I believe that my father had aspergers as my mother has told me on several occasions that me and my father act exactly like each other. I don't know if that has anything to do with my aspergers though.

As others have pointed out, there's no reason to say that an autistic person must have an autistic father. However, in my case I suspect that my biological father may have been on the spectrum. I only had the chance to meet him once before he passed away, but from various bits and pieces I've been able to glean from my mother and other family members, it seems likely that he did. Not only do I look strikingly like him when he was younger, but my mother tells me I have many of his traits, such as being slow to process a response in many situations.

I'll never know for sure, of course.

My parents are "irritable", quite easy can be aggressive or vulgar. But they do not have "typical" autistic traits, like lack of theory of mind, rigid routines, sensory issues (probably). They both had relatively low birth weight (2800 g), mother had large body length on birth (56 cm (the method was other than WHO's one). It looks probably that they both have a bit of somehat "Aspergian" traits, but even not enough to have "bland" form of AS. Father is emotionally "cold" for is wife and children. He could sometimes speak to himself, he said that he walked on toes when he was small. His brother is PhD engineer. Mother once said that she does not like changes. She appears to have quite low number of friends. His mother had a sister who was nonverbal, had self-harming behaviors(?) and died when she was just 8 (this condition might be a PDD, and a low-functioning one, but my grandmother said that it was due to health problems in early infancy) and one of my grandmother's brothers probably had a grandson with something which appears for me to be an ASD. During my AS diagnosis, my mother heard about supposed heritablility of AS from paternal side and she said something that might look like suspecting that my father has AS (or at least has soemthing to do with it, especially in "genetic" area).

My parents have three children. I have diagnoses of Asperger syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizotypal disorder. I had low birth weight (2150 g) and really high body length compared to birth weight (53 cm). I was firstborn child, conceived before marriage, opposite to my siblings. My brother was born abut 3,5 years after me, had 3600 g and 57 cm and looks even less "Aspie-like" than my parents for me, but he had some difficulties in spelling and reading (he was tested to find out if he has dyslexia, but he did not received this diagnosis). My sister may looks as a "bland Aspie" for me. She was born more than 6 years after birth and had 2650 g and 53 cm on birth. I see something "strange" in her, but she is much less "bizarre" than me and has much better social skills and does not appear to be obsessive. There is a topic about her: http://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=271756. All three children were born on time and had 10 points on Apgar scale.

In my family there may be some relation between "birth parameters" (especially body weight and length) and the level of "Aspieness". Lower birth weight (especially with high body length in comparison to weight) may look to be correlated with "Aspieness".