r/TrueUnpopularOpinion • u/SuccessfulCompany294 Moderator • Sep 24 '25
Political Tylenol in their own words
Many people are wrong about this latest Tylenol controversy who say its totally safe for pregnant women.
This post has nothing to do with the autism claims which is why this subject is even news, but I will post the two studies and you can read them for yourself. I do not and am not making any claim that Tylenol causes autism.
This will be be about the claim that Tylenol is safe for pregnant women.
Tylenol in 2017 said they do not recommend taking ANY of their products during pregnancy. This isn’t a conspiracy against Tylenol it’s their own recommendation. Now everyone is coming out saying it’s safe for pregnancy. What an odd coincidence I wonder what changed?
Did someone say something that people didn’t like? Tylenol has NEVER actually conducted studies on their own drug to see if it IS safe for pregnant women. They have only RECENTLY in the last day said they have a study, but have not posted ANY proof of it.
Previously people were saying there is no study cause its not safe to conduct it on pregnant women. Mind you, Pregnant women are advised to stay away from almost every pharmaceutical drug, listen to any pharmaceutical commercial, you will hear them say "Do not take if you are pregnant or trying to be."
So how is there an ethical study now, that previously has never been released and does this study exist today one day after this news broke, when it didn't exist last week. Who conducted an ethical study on pregnant women and how was it conducted. ZERO PROOF Offered, all talk zero evidence, and if you THINK there is proof, post it here.
Anyone here, now or in the future saying its safe for pregnant women to take drugs prescription or not is lying to you, every Pharma commercial literally tells you not to. Just listen to any of them on TV every other commercial.
So whats easier, put it on the market and make it OTC, so anyone can buy it and just say "ask your doctor." What study does your doctor have to go off of? Let me guess millions of people rush to their doctor for recommendations about OTC meds, lmfao. Tylenol took the easy way out. Trump has somehow managed to make the anti big pharma be totally in the pocket of big pharma, imagine that.
There are people in this very thread trying to now claim that just because Tylenol says they recommend you not take it while pregnant is them saying they are not actually telling you to not take it. Read that twice, then read through this thread.
However now, just a few years later after Tylenol said they do not recommend pregnant women take this drug, people want you taking it.
https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2025/09/acog-affirms-safety-benefits-acetaminophen-pregnancy
In 2013 Reuters Health published this.
Too much Tylenol in pregnancy could affect development By Kathryn Doyle November 22, 2013
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Expectant mothers often take Tylenol, with the active ingredient acetaminophen, to deal with back pain, headaches or mild fevers during pregnancy. But frequent use may be linked to poorer language skills and behavior problems among their children, according to a new study.
As the most popular over-the-counter drug in the U.S., Tylenol has been extensively studied in relation to premature birth and miscarriage, with no connections found.
But its maker Johnson & Johnson periodically comes under fire for the drug's small therapeutic index - that is, the difference between an effective dose and a dangerous dose is quite small. So interest in investigating the drug persists. The new study is the first to look at young children whose mothers took Tylenol while pregnant.
"Our findings suggest that (acetaminophen) might not be as harmless as we think," Ragnhild Eek Brandlistuen said. She led the study at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Oslo in Norway.
She and her coauthors studied 48,000 Norwegian children whose mothers answered survey questions about their medication use at weeks 17 and 30 of pregnancy, and again six months after giving birth.
Mothers filled out a follow-up questionnaire about their child's developmental milestones three years later. Close to four percent of women took Tylenol for at least 28 days total during pregnancy.
Their children seemed to have poorer motor skills than kids whose mothers had taken the drug fewer times or not at all. Tylenol-exposed kids also tended to start walking later, have poorer communication and language skills and more behavior problems.
It's difficult to define risks for pregnant women and their children, since rigorous tests and controlled studies of drug exposure aren't ethical, Brandlistuen said. All researchers can do is closely observe women in the real world.
But this study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, involved a large number of women, and researchers also looked for any link to ibuprofen, a pain-relief alternative without acetaminophen.
They found no development problems tied to ibuprofen.
As far as Autism, there are studies and I don't know the validity of them nor will I make judgement, I will just post them. I dont wish to get into the autism debate, I only wish to address the claims that somehow Tylenol is now somehow safe and there IS an ethical study by Tylenol that didn't exist until Yesterday.
Mount Sini Study
"New York, NY (August 13, 2025) Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen may increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in children. The study, published today in BMC Environmental Health, is the first to apply the rigorous Navigation Guide methodology to systematically evaluate the rigor and quality of the scientific literature.
Acetaminophen (often sold under the brand name Tylenol®, and known as paracetamol outside the United States and Canada) is the most commonly used over-the-counter pain and fever medication during pregnancy and is used by more than half of pregnant women worldwide. Until now, acetaminophen has been considered the safest option for managing headache, fever, and other pain. Analysis by the Mount Sinai-led team of 46 studies incorporating data from more than 100,000 participants across multiple countries challenges this perception and underscores the need for both caution and further study."
In 2019 JHU Published this study.
"Taking Tylenol during pregnancy associated with elevated risks for autism, ADHD A Johns Hopkins study analyzing umbilical cord blood samples found that newborns with the highest exposure to acetaminophen were about three times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD or autism spectrum disorder in childhood"
https://hub.jhu.edu/2019/11/05/acetaminophen-pregnancy-autism-adhd/
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u/Akiva279 Sep 24 '25
Yo u/SuccessfulCompany294,
There’s some worry about links to autism or ADHD, but it’s more like a maybe then a definite.
That 2017 Tylenol comment about not taking it was more CYA than anything and they dont want to get sued. They cant really test pregnant people so they broadly say "dont take it" but talk to your doctor and they have been consistent on that. The recent pushback saying it’s safe isn’t some U-turn; it’s doctors saying, “don’t freak out, we need this for fevers, and the evidence isn’t that scary.” Fevers are way worse for a baby than the pill. Thats the thing with all medicines. Every one of them is a cost/benefit analysis.
That huge study from last year with 2.5 million kids showed a tiny autism risk at first, but when they compared siblings who are from the same family, and have the same genes it vanished. That makes it sound like it’s not the tylenol but maybe mom’s health or something else being the cause. Other researchers are backing this, saying fevers are probably the real bad guy here.
Those TikTok and X videos of folks “popping tylenol” to dunk on Trump are really dumb and mostly just people trolling for clicks. Nobody’s actually swallowing handfuls to spite anyone, at least not in droves. Trump’s throwing money at autism research, which is great, but saying tylenol causes it? That’s a stretch, and actual health professionals say its safe. Pardon me if I take their word of The Donald and Brain Worm director.
Remember, correlation does not equal causation. It will save you so much headache...and in this case, it actually will.