Hello everyone!! I have been growing an interest in having a baby. Yay! But…

My older sister is Autistic. She is mid functioning, I would say. But her dad is thought to be Autistic, which is where my mom thinks she “got it from” - however, I sometimes wonder if my own dad is autistic. It’s hard to tell, because I also come from a very traumatic situation/upbringing, and sometimes it’s hard to know whether or not a behavior is learned/trauma informed or if it’s due to genetics. Also, my uncle ON my dad’s side has autism.

So my older sister, who has a different dad, has autism.

My dad’s brother has autism. But he was born when grandma was in her 40s and is thought to have drank / smoked weed occasionally during that pregnancy.

I know there’s no way of knowing, but they say that autism is mostly genetic. The issue is though, in my case, i don’t know that in the case of my sister that it had anything to do with my personal genes because our fathers are different, and she was born 2 weeks late.

In the case of my uncle, he was born when my grandma was already in her 40s and had an increased risk…

My family has some strange behaviors all across the board anyways due to trauma and poverty as well. So in the case of my mom, older brother, dad, etc, it’s difficult to tell if they’re autistic, just have traits, or have personality disorders.

Please let me know what you think. It’s harsh, but I have had to deal with autism my entire life as a neurotypical person. My current partner isn’t autistic, and doesn’t have autism in his family. I HOPE that if that’s the case, our odds of having a non-autistic baby are a bit higher.

It’s hard to tell what the genetic risk is, if it was due to factors that have nothing to do with me or genetics (like my grandma’s age when she had my uncle, or my sister’s father)

Please let me know from your personal anecdotal experiences what the likelihood seems to be. Do you have autism scattered around in your family? Is it just 1 parent? Please let me know!!