Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that giving Tylenol to infant boys after circumcision could be a cause of autism among males.
Kennedy and President Donald Trump, during Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, briefly discussed the connection between the use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, during pregnancy and early infancy, and the risk of the child developing autism.
In September, the Food and Drug Administration issued a recommendation to physicians that pregnant patients use Tylenol sparingly because of the possibility that it could cause autism in babies. The FDA did not directly address infant use of Tylenol as possibly being connected to Autism Spectrum Disorder. Trump, though, encouraged parents not to give their young children Tylenol.
On Thursday, Kennedy praised Trump’s Tylenol announcement and highlighted two studies that have indicated that male infant circumcision is correlated with autism diagnoses, suggesting that it is because of giving the baby Tylenol for pain management.
“There’s two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol,” said Kennedy. “You know, none of this is dispositive. All of it should be paid attention to.”
A 2015 study from the Danish Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine looked at nearly 343,000 boys born from 1994 to 2003, finding that “boys who undergo ritual circumcision may run a greater risk” of autism, as well as hyperactivity disorders.
Another 2013 study found that countries with higher circumcision rates have higher levels of autism, but the authors acknowledged that their analysis does not prove causality.
Circumcision rates in the United States have steadily declined over the past several decades. In 1981, roughly 65% of newborn boys were circumcised in the hospital, but this fell to approximately 55% in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A more recent study from Johns Hopkins University Medicine found that only 49% of male babies were circumcised in 2022.
The CDC estimates that one in 31 children aged eight years old, about 3% of children, has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism is more than three times more common in boys than in girls.
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Trump was heavily criticized following his September advice to pregnant women to just “tough it out” instead of taking Tylenol during pregnancy, but he gave the advice again during Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.
“Just don’t take it. Don’t take it. If you’re a woman, don’t take it and don’t give it to the baby when the baby’s born. And I think that’s going to have an impact,” Trump said, referring to decreasing autism rates over time.
