The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz has clarified what the federal guidance is on when it’s safe for pregnant women to take the commonly used pain and fever relief, Tylenol.
When asked on CBS News’ show “The Takeout” on Thursday by chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett whether the federal advise was for pregnant women to “never take Tylenol under any circumstance,” Oz responded: “categorically, no.”
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump said earlier this week that acetaminophen, which is sold under the brand name Tylenol, may be linked to higher autism rates in the U.S., although experts say the link remains unproven.
The president has also said that pregnant women would avoid taking Tylenol throughout their pregnancy, suggesting they needed to “tough it out” instead.
Following Trump’s announcement on Tylenol and autism, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also approved a version of leucovorin, a type of vitamin B also known as folinic acid, to treat children with autism. However, concern has been raised over whether this benefits Oz, who has previously invested in a California supplement retailer, iHerb, which sells folinic acid.
What To Know
In an interview on Thursday with CBS News’ correspondent Garrett, Oz, who is a former surgeon and television personality, said that when pregnant women have high fever, doctors will tell them to take Tylenol because “we don’t have a lot of other options and that fever itself could be a problem.”
“The concern here is that, I believe that most women get low grade fevers, they stub their toe, they have little aches and pains and they think it’s perfectly safe to throw a couple of paracetamol or acetaminophen or Tylenol when they’re pregnant and I don’t think that’s the case,” he said.
Studies have shown that acetaminophen is safe to use during pregnancy. One published in 2024, involving almost 2.5 million children, found that there was no association between risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability and acetaminophen being taken during pregnancy.
Although, the FDA released an open letter on Monday, stating that “evidence has accumulated suggesting that the use of acetaminophen by pregnant women may be associated with an increased risk of neurological conditions such as autism and ADHD in children.”
The letter added that “while an association between acetaminophen and autism has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established.”
The advice was for clinicians to “consider minimizing the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy for routine low-grade fevers,” while confirming that acetaminophen is the “safest over-the-counter alternative in pregnancy among all analgesics and antipyretics.”
Oz also said that the rapid increase in autism rates in the U.S. is “clearly not genetic, there’s something environmental happening.”
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2010 the prevalence rate of autism spectrum disorder was 1 in 68, and in 2000, it was 1 in 150. Now, around 1 in 31 8-year-olds have been diagnosed with autism.
This increase in prevalence rates also coincided with an increase in the number of Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network sites reporting on rates of autism, suggesting the increased prevalence correlated with an uptick in monitoring.
Some experts have said that the rise in autism could be because of the increase in awareness and diagnosing, something which is happening globally, rather than a surge in actual biological incidence.
The diagnostic standard for autism has also been expanded a number of times in America: the latest expansion happening in 2013 when six major changes were implemented, broadening the criteria for a diagnosis.
When asked if the expansion of the diagnostic criteria may have contributed to the increase in autism rates, Oz said “I’ll grant you there’s a possible creep there,” and then asked Garrett whether he knew any Americans with autism that were his age, suggesting that most people with the condition in the U.S. are of a younger generation.
“There seems to have actually been a real change,” he said.
What People Are Saying
Oz said on CBS News’ “The Takeout” on Thursday: “If you mix politics and medicine, you know what you get? Politics. You kill medicine. This is not to be a politicized issue. Why would the president talk about this? There’s no political benefit to him. He did it because he cares deeply about these children, he doesn’t want the American people hurt and most importantly he wants to be transparent about what we know.”
Dr Steven J. Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), said on Monday: “Suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are not only highly concerning to clinicians but also irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy.”
What Happens Next
The effort—led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to identify all causes of autism, which also involves the National Institutes of Health, FDA, CDC and CMS—is still underway.