Those experts can back-up their advice with findings from extensive research. Those experts might also be familiar with other research on autism and children. That research has not been focused on the development of autistic kids. Instead it has focused on the goal of reducing the frequency with which doctors must report a case of autism.
In other words, that second group of researchers hopes to find a way to identify autistic kids in utero. Their research has centered on the identification of a way to tell parents at the earliest stages of pregnancy whether or not the baby inside of the mother is autistic. Those researchers appear to have achieved some success.
Using the tools provided by scientists that specialize in molecular biology, those researchers have identified 7 specific genes. The researchers have found that those 7 specific genes are present in the chromosomes of autistic kids. The identification of those genes should get the notice of all obstetricians.
Obstetricians now appear to have a way by which they can identify any case of autism even before the child is born. That ability now exists for other genetic disorders, such as Down’s syndrome. When parents learn that a developing baby has that genetic disorder, then they must choose whether or not to abort that baby.
That is a traumatic decision, and one that parents would like to avoid. Women can decrease their risk of having a baby with Down’s syndrome by not becoming pregnant after the age of 35. Research now suggests that the age of the father could affect a child’s chances for getting autism.
Research has produced evidence that men over the age of 40 face a greater chance of having an autistic baby. This suggests that, unlike Down’s syndrome, autism is caused by genes that mutate in an aging sperm cell. This also suggests that men over the age of 40 might want to invest in a genetic analysis of their sperm cells.
Men over 40 who want to father children might then know whether or not they faced a high risk of giving a baby the genes that cause autism. Men who did not appear to have those genes might want to think about fathering more children. Still, they would need to realize that the results of an amniocentesis would ultimately determine whether or not they would welcome a new family member.
Parents who felt the need to use any such services would, of course, want to seek the advice of genetic counselors. Such counselors would be familiar with the degree to which an aging sperm can increase a couple’s need to learn about the relationship between mutated genes and autistic kids.