Autism and Late marriage

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Well, I can't think of anyone in my family who I would suspect of having AS, and I know of no one who has ASD.

That's pretty unusual actually. Many people here can identify people in their immediate and/or extended family who are definitely or probably autistic to some degree.

My son is diagnosed and I see it in my own family, on my mother's side only, going back a couple of generations, in my son's father and in one of his cousin's on his father's side.

Edited to add: I agree with those who pointed out that it seems likely that the parents are on or close to the spectrum themselves and married later than average for that or related reasons.

^^ I don't know any of my dad's relatives, as they divorced when I was a baby. I've met my dad, but only once. He didn't seem to be AS then though, looking back and guessing. However, I probably wouldn't seem like it either to someone who was only around me for a weekend and I was trying to make a good impression. I also didn't know about AS then, so I wasn't looking for it. When you get to know me and I'm more relaxed around you, and you see me several times, that's when you start to notice some of the AS signs.

True enough, even if it is there you wouldn't spot in on one meeting like that. If I had no contact with my mother or her family then I wouldn't see it in my family either as it is restricted to that side of the family. My mother and her relations are all a bit eccentric.

My dad had me when I was 24 years old, so it shouldn't matter whether the marriage was late or early. Any couple has the chance of conceiving a child with AS or another type of ASD, whether they were a younger couple, a typical aged couple or an older couple. My mum was 27 and my dad was 24 when they had me. They were an average aged couple. I know some people on the spectrum who's parents were young when they were born and I know some people on the spectrum who's parents were older when they were born.

Might sound stupid, but please don't believe everything you see written in papers or journals. Chances are the one who wrote the paper only read a single study, and most of the time they actually read it without really understanding it.
I am a professional geneticist, and for obvious reasons I am very interested in genetics of autis. I've lost the number of articles I've read on autism, but there is evidence that it is X-linked and that it is not; that there is genomic imprinting of certain genes, and that there is not; that there is parental age effect and that there is not; that there are environmental factors playing a role, and that there are not. I think it would be safe to assume that autism is not a monogenic condition and that every case is different. It is established that autism is heritable, so it is possible that one of the parents of an autistic child would exhibit autistic traits so they would not marry and have children at age most peers would, but thus is not the norm. After all, most autistic children are born to perfectly normal NT people within the average childbearing age and some autistic people may not marry at all - for a variety of reasons, so you can't generalise over it.

It's not stupid at all. I don't have anything even close to your credentials, but I did take a fascinating course in college called, "Statistics, Problems and Possibilities." It was a fantastic course because it not only taught us the math behind statistical analysis, it also taught the history and politics behind the development of statistical math. In order to pass the course, we had to understand both the mathematics AND the psychology behind structuring studies properly. The main purpose wasn't to train anyone to go into statistical fields, but to train us to understand actual studies.

The fact is, the vast majority of reports done on studies are done by reporters who don't have a freaking CLUE how to read one. Almost all news reports about studies are based on nothing more than an abstract, and/or the conclusion at the end of the study. Most of these guys have no idea how to tell whether the data is actually interpreted correctly, and in many studies, neither did the people who conducted the study. It's really pretty shameful how bad some of them are.

For our final project, we each chose a study, analyzed it and wrote a report about whether it was a "good" study, or not, and why. I happened to stumble across one of the early vaccine/Autism studies that claimed to prove a connection between the two. It was so full of holes, even I, a one course statistics student could tear it apart easily.

Got an A, by the way. *rubs fingers on chest proudly*

My Mum was nearly 22 when she had me, and she never married my Dad, so young parents can have children with Aspergers as well.

I've often wondered if age, after reading this before was a contributing factor for me. My parents were married in their 30's and my mom had me at 33.

My mum was 39 when I was born and my dad was almost 37. They were married 8 years prior to that. I think their personalities account for marrying later than most of their peers, as my mum seems pretty on the spectrum too, probably more ADHD like than anything else and my dad is NT, but suffers from social anxiety. My mum's mum was kind of ADHD like too and she had my mum when she was 35. But, she had another daughter when she was 25, who is diagnosed bipolar, but I suspect has AS. I married at 21 and my husband was 26, but I was 32 before our daughter finally arrived.

Do you have an underactive thyroid? I've been reading about the correlation between gluten sensitivity and auto-immune antibodies to the thyroid gland. Have you ever been tested for gluten sensitivity? Gluten seems to be popping up over and over in these forums.

Oh yes, and my Dad turned 19 a week before I was born.

I have to call them on this theory. My parents had me when they were both 28, and my grandparents had my Dad (also an Aspie) even earlier than that. Just another theory with too many holes to back it up, but hey you can't fault them for trying.

My dad was 39 and my mother was 33 years old when I was born.

yes, when i read the thread title i thought the thread may be about autistic spectrum people marrying later.
i like to think i am a late developer

My parents were both 38, my mom almost 39 when I was born so I guess its true for me.