TY - JOUR

T1 - Maternal use of hormonal contraception and risk of childhood autism spectrum disorders

T2 - A Parental Exposures and Child Health (PECH) cohort study

AU - Hargreave, Marie

AU - Jezek, Andrea H.

AU - Hemmingsen, Caroline H.

AU - Andersen, Elisabeth AW

AU - Pagsberg, Anne K.

AU - Holmberg, Teresa

AU - Mørch, Lina S.

AU - Kjær, Susanne K.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - A recent hypothesis suggests that maternal hormonal contraception use has contributed to the increasing incidence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We used a nationwide population-based cohort (the PECH cohort) including 1,056,149 Danish children born in the period January 1, 1998, to December 31, 2014, to assess associations between maternal hormonal contraception use and childhood ASD (end of follow-up: December 31, 2017). Maternal hormonal contraception use was grouped as “recent use” (≤ 3 months before pregnancy start or during pregnancy), “previous use” (>3 months before pregnancy start) and “never use”, except for few products. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were estimated using Poisson regression. During follow-up of nearly 12 million person-years, 19,996 children were diagnosed with ASD. A slightly higher IRR was observed for maternal recent use of any hormonal contraception, compared to previous use. This association was largely driven by the non-oral progestin-only products, and associations were especially seen for infantile autism and other/unspecified ASD. An increased IRR of infantile autism was also observed for recent use of the oral progestin-only products, compared to previous use. Our results suggest that maternal use of hormonal contraception may be associated with ASD risk in children, especially for the progestin-only products.

AB - A recent hypothesis suggests that maternal hormonal contraception use has contributed to the increasing incidence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We used a nationwide population-based cohort (the PECH cohort) including 1,056,149 Danish children born in the period January 1, 1998, to December 31, 2014, to assess associations between maternal hormonal contraception use and childhood ASD (end of follow-up: December 31, 2017). Maternal hormonal contraception use was grouped as “recent use” (≤ 3 months before pregnancy start or during pregnancy), “previous use” (>3 months before pregnancy start) and “never use”, except for few products. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were estimated using Poisson regression. During follow-up of nearly 12 million person-years, 19,996 children were diagnosed with ASD. A slightly higher IRR was observed for maternal recent use of any hormonal contraception, compared to previous use. This association was largely driven by the non-oral progestin-only products, and associations were especially seen for infantile autism and other/unspecified ASD. An increased IRR of infantile autism was also observed for recent use of the oral progestin-only products, compared to previous use. Our results suggest that maternal use of hormonal contraception may be associated with ASD risk in children, especially for the progestin-only products.

KW - ASD

KW - Children

KW - Cohort study

KW - Denmark

KW - Drugs in pregnancy

KW - Epidemiology

KW - Parental exposure

U2 - 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115695

DO - 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115695

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38157710

AN - SCOPUS:85181230627

VL - 332

JO - Psychiatry Research

JF - Psychiatry Research

SN - 0165-1781

M1 - 115695

ER -