A new study has found that male circumcision just after birth doesn’t raise the risk of autism. The research, which followed nearly 3,000 boys from birth into childhood, discovered that young boys who were circumcised just after birth did not have a higher risk of autism.
Two observational studies published over a decade ago suggested a possible circumcision-autism link. However, the new study in JAMA Pediatrics examined data from a nationwide ongoing child health study and found no link between circumcision and autism.
The analysis found that boys circumcised just after birth did not have a higher risk of autism compared to uncircumcised boys in the cohort. According to the report, 66% of the boys were circumcised before maternity hospital discharge, and about 7% had a documented or parent-reported autism diagnosis at a mean age of 3.8 years.
Among the boys with neonatal circumcision, the risk of autism diagnosis was 6%. The autism risk among uncircumcised boys was higher at 9%, and after adjusting for likely confounding factors such as parental age and family history of autism, there was no significant association.
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Circumcision rates have been declining in the US, while the number of autism diagnoses in children has increased dramatically in recent decades. Roughly one child in 150 had an autism diagnosis in 2000, but as of 2022 the prevalence was one child in 31 among 8-year-olds.
The increase in autism diagnoses may be due to more awareness, more testing, and subsequent diagnoses. They also looked at acetaminophen exposure in the neonatal period but found it was too uncommon to permit analysis of its potential association with autism.
Support for the research was provided by the National Institutes of Health. The researchers are continuing to evaluate other factors that may explain the rise in autism diagnoses.
Parents have been concerned about the potential circumcision-autism connection, but hopefully these findings may help allay their fears, says Monica McGrath, senior author and research professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health‘s epidemiology department. McGrath and her colleagues are continuing to investigate this question using data from the ECHO Cohort study.
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The study’s findings may provide some reassurance to parents, but it’s also important to consider the broader context of autism research. As the prevalence of autism continues to rise, it’s essential to evaluate the safety of common medical procedures and explore other factors that may contribute to this trend.
The researchers’ analysis included 2,771 boys who had been enrolled at 14 different ECHO sites across the US.
The study’s results suggest that circumcision is not a contributing factor to the development of autism, but more research is needed to fully understand the causes of this complex condition.