Meryl Horn

Fact-checking by Sam Lemenick.

Music written by Peter Leonard, Bobby Lord, So Wiley, Emma Munger, and Bumi Hidaka.

Thanks to all the researchers we spoke to, including Professor Barry Popkin, Dr. John White, Dr. Nick Fuller, Professor Paul Breslin, Dr. Richard Johnson, and Dr. Vasanti Malik.

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Hi, I'm Meryl Horne filling in for Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Versus.

This is the show that pits facts against acetaminophen.

Today on the show, does taking Tylenol when you're pregnant make it more likely that your kid will be autistic?

This idea has been all over the news the past couple weeks because of a big report that's coming from the U.S.

government.

It's supposedly gonna reveal the true causes of autism.

And now what's going around is the claim that it's gonna talk about Tylenol.

HHS is set to release a report that will link autism to Tylenol use during pregnancy.

And the government hasn't confirmed that the report will talk about acetaminophen.

But this idea, it isn't something that came out of nowhere or some totally fringe scientific theory.

There are lots of legit studies on this, and some of them do seem to suggest that popping acetaminophen during pregnancy is linked not just to autism, but to ADHD and other stuff going on with the brain.

Meanwhile, fears around taking Tylenol when you're pregnant have been spreading on social media for years.

And these new reports have added fuel to the fire.