Medical groups continue to react after the Trump administration reversed decades of medical advice for pregnant patients by linking the use of acetaminophen to an increased risk of the child developing autism — even though they provided little evidence to back the claim.
Doctors say millions of pregnant women have safely taken acetaminophen for decades to treat pain and fevers, and the major medical groups say they should continue.
Stephanie Buchanan, from Marlton, is six months pregnant with her third child and says she’s taken acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, during all three pregnancies to treat pain from chronic migraines.
“I don’t take it as regularly as I would not pregnant, just because I don’t take most things as regularly as I would not pregnant,” Buchanan said.
The 34-year-old mother says she was shocked when President Trump linked the pain medicine to autism.
“If you’re pregnant, don’t take Tylenol,” Trump said at a White House briefing Tuesday afternoon.
Buchanan says she’ll rely on established science.
“People who have spent their years practicing medicine, learning about medicine, learning about science are the ones that I’m going to be listening to,” Buchanan said.
Doctors at her Virtua OB-GYN office say they’re getting a lot of calls and messages from worried patients.
“They are concerned what they can take when they are suffering through pain or having other issues in pregnancy,” said Virtua Health obstetrician, Dr. Sipika Tyagi.
Tyagi says most of her patients take acetaminophen when needed.
“There has been decades of research done, and Tylenol acetaminophen seems to be the safest option available,” Tyagi said.
And there’s research that shows fevers that aren’t treated in pregnant women with acetaminophen can cause the child to have developmental issues.
“High fever can also lead to seizures in pregnancy, which is absolutely disastrous for mom and for the baby,” Tyagi said. “So that we take it very seriously if a patient has high fever in pregnancy. And we do advise them to take acetaminophen to lower down their temperature.”
Tyagi says she will not be changing her advice to patients to take acetaminophen when needed. That recommendation has been reaffirmed by leading medical organizations, despite statements from the president.
The Trump administration is also committing millions of dollars for new research to further investigate the cause of autism and find possible new treatments.