Experts are slamming Robert F Kennedy Jr’s ‘incoherent’ comments seemingly linking circumcision to an increased risk in autism.  

Approximately 80 percent of American men are circumcised, with the procedure being performed for religious, hygienic, or personal reasons. In the US, it is viewed as a safe practice.

However, during a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the health secretary referenced two studies that indicate a higher incidence of autism in boys circumcised as infants.

He stated: ‘According to these studies, boys circumcised early show a doubled autism rate, likely due to Tylenol usage.’

RFK Jr later clarified on X that he associated the use of acetaminophen for post-procedure pain relief with autism, not circumcision itself.

Last month, health officials under the Trump administration, along with the president, suggested a connection between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism, contradicting the consensus among medical professionals and scientific research that find no causal link.

The Daily Mail consulted three experts, all of whom dismissed the notion that circumcision is linked to autism as ‘incoherent speculation’ that misinterprets scientific findings.

One expert acknowledged, however, that there may be merit to the warning that prescribing very young babies acetaminophen could raise their risk of autism, but said that more studies were needed.

Robert F Kennedy Junior, pictured above in August, said at a press conference yesterday that circumcision may raise the risk of autism if an infant also receives Tylenol, or acetaminophen

Dr Jeff Singer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in the Department of Health Policy Studies, told Daily Mail: ‘I don’t know what gave Secretary Kennedy that idea. 

‘The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder in Israel, where ritual circumcision is nearly universal, is about 1 in 88, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health. In the US, where circumcision is far less common, the rate is 1 in 31, according to the CDC.

He added: ‘Kennedy also assumes all these children were given Tylenol after circumcision. He has no data to support that.

‘In most Jewish ritual circumcisions, a few drops of wine are placed on the baby’s lips— not acetaminophen.’

Autism rates in Israel are about one percent, compared to 3.2 percent in the US.  

More than 1,000 circumcisions are carried out in the US every day, typically on babies within the first days of life, or under six weeks old.

It is uncommon for babies to receive acetaminophen after the procedure.

Acetaminophen is available over the counter, but medical guidelines say it should not be administered to infants under 12 weeks old unless recommended by a pediatrician.

Autism rates have exploded in the US in recent years, with one in 31 children diagnosed with the condition in 2022 compared to one in 150 in 2000.

At the same time, however, experts have vastly loosened the definition of the condition, leading many to be diagnosed with autism who never previously would have been. 

In his post on X on Friday, Kennedy said that his comments were referring to a 2025 study published as a pre-print, research that has not been reviewed by other scientists.

This pre-print is a literature review of 64 studies, published from 2008 to 2025, that contained the terms ‘autism’ and ‘acetaminophen’ or ‘paracetamol’, the brand name for Tylenol in many other countries, including the UK.

It included at least one study on circumcision and autism, a 2015 paper from scientists in Denmark, where circumcision is uncommon, that it said had been ‘irrationally dismissed’.

The Danish research compared autism rates among 340,000 boys who were not circumcised to 3,347 boys who were circumcised, and found that the circumcised individuals had double the risk of autism compared to the other group.

It only detected a correlation, which does not show that circumcision directly caused autism, and it only included a small number of people with autism.

It also did not look at whether these children took acetaminophen after the procedure and only analyzed the relationship between autism and early life pain.

But the 2025 pre-print notes that, ‘this evidence points to acetaminophen, often used in conjunction with male circumcision, as a trigger for autism’.

Trump is pictured above during the cabinet meeting on Thursday

Dr David Shusterman, a urologist in New York City, told this website: ‘Circumcision by itself, just cutting the foreskin, does not create autism.

‘It is nice to see that Kennedy is at least looking at this, but based on studies, I don’t think you can say that Tylenol use in infants is dangerous at this stage.’

He added: ‘We would need large prospective randomized studies on Tylenol. To me, this just doesn’t make a lot of sense unless there is more evidence.’

He recommended a study that compared the number of autism diagnoses in a nationally-representative sample that compared infants who were circumcised and then received acetaminophen to infants who were circumcised but then did not receive the drug.

It is not clear how often babies are administered acetaminophen after a circumcision, but Dr Shusterman, who has carried out many circumcisions, said that in his experience this was rare.

Dr Justin Houman, a urologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California, however, said that the drug is routinely offered to babies at his hospital after the procedure to help them manage pain.

He said it was not clear how many parents accepted the recommendation and gave their sons the drug.

But describing the circumcision of his son, Dr Shusterman said: ‘My son’s circumcision was seven days post birth, we didn’t give him any medication. He cried for about 10 seconds, and then stopped crying.’

President Donald Trump and Kennedy first made claims regarding acetaminophen and autism in a press conference last month, during which Trump urged pregnant women not to take the medication because of a potential link.

He said: ‘Don’t take Tylenol. Fight like hell not to take it.’

Some studies have shown an association between taking acetaminophen, the active drug in Tylenol, during pregnancy and autism in children.

But experts stress that an association does not directly prove that acetaminophen causes autism. They also highlight other large-scale research that has found no link between taking Tylenol during pregnancy and autism.