Male brain and the role of testosterone and thimerosal in autism – an opinion

Editor’s Note: Occasionally at Autism Daily Newscast we receive emails which pose interesting questions. One such email was received last week by Tony Bateson, in response to an article we published regarding Robert F Kennedy Jr’s as yet unpublished book about the MMR vaccinations. I will allow Mr Bateson himself to voice his opinion, and observations and invite any comments of a respectful nature below.

Male Brain and the role of Testosterone/Maleness in autism.  A personal view derived from fifty years experience of knowing autistic people from infancy through to mature adulthood, and perhaps significantly, their parents.

My name is Tony Bateson I am the father of an autistic woman born in 1963.  Since 1969 I have worked to lead groups to improve resources available to a growing number of autistic children and young people.  With the help of many other dedicated people Linden Bridge School resulted in the late 1970s followed by Stroud Court Community Trust a residential care centre in Gloucestershire in 1983.  I remain a Trustee of the latter.

In 1996 I saw for the first time evidence that not every member of the medical profession rejected the possibility of vaccines being implicated in autism and chronic gut disorders when Andrew Wakefield’s work was reported in the Mail on Sunday a National Newspaper in September of that year.  From that time on I sought to review all my past experiences of knowing hundreds of autistic people, their parents and their professional helpers when working in the field of ‘bricks and mortar’ projects to help autistic people.

I am a testosterone anomaly male.

I am an acute observer of testosterone anomaly in males.

When I first met other parents of autistic children I observed many such, amounting to what I knew to be an over-distribution of alpha/hirsute males in that group.

When I joined the thirty strong Board of the National Autistic Society in 1981 I found exceptional evidence of alpha/hirsute maleness in that group.

At the same time however I found evidence not simply of alpha males/hirsute males but also of over-distribution of sub alpha/low hirsute maleness in the same group.

In Washington USA in November 2002 Professor Boyd Haley graphically demonstrated how elevated testosterone in conjunction with mercury compounds created vulnerability to neuron damage. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen attests to ‘testosterone running through autism families like a river’. Simon Baron-Cohen develops his theory of extreme maleness and ‘male brain autism’ etc.Presence of significant testosterone is consistent with male brains and/or large brains. Lack of significant testosterone levels is consistent with female brains.

Male brains and female brains must commonly find parity, but in the autistic group of children they are skewed five males to every female. The biggest single anomaly in amniocentesis fluid from births of children subsequently diagnosed as autistic is elevated testosterone

Studies at Edinburgh University drawn from foetal data show that head/brain size in the womb as measured by ultrasound reveals larger brain/head size in those infants subsequently diagnosed to be autistic. There is significant potential for clearly another factor to be at work here.

A factor that crosses the blood brain barrier to potentiate with one group’s testosterone brains rather than another?

Thimerosal, almost uniquely, crosses the blood brain barrier.

Thimerosal + testosterone in the brain damages neurons.

Testosterone in the brain at any level is normal Thimerosal/mercury is not

At birth male children and female children are in parity. If a skew process ensues it must be the result of an environmental factor in early infancy, such a factor may impact upon elevated testosterone. Elevated testosterone is more commonly found in male infants. Females diagnosed as autistic are often seen in early years and in teenage to be markedly testosteronal. Male infants from significantly male parents may be more likely than not to carry elevated testosterone or more likely to experience fluctuating testosterone.

Fluctuating testosterone may explain the testosterone behaviour of low testosterone individuals

Research around testosterone in risk taking commercial activity (investment banking) reveals high risk taking amongst low testosterone males at levels otherwise associated with alpha/hirsute males

Boyd Haley suggests that hormonal fluctuation renders vulnerability to thimerosal harm

Over the period between 1990 to date there has been a steep increase in the use of testosterone HRT especially in the USA and the UK.

Autism has also increased dramatically over this period in both countries

If testosterone/thimerosal are linked to autism then the normal testosterone levels in the population may have been boosted artificially by the unnatural addition of manufactured hormones

The only way to test this hypothesis is to conduct large scale reviews of data already held to assess vaccinated vs unvaccinated outcomes and potentially the impact of testosterone HRT

Such data is held by the ALSPAC long term longitudinal study programme conducted by Bristol University since 1991

Further data can be available from studies of autism prevalence in birth cohorts dating from post September 2004 when thimerosal was withdrawn from DTP vaccines in the UK and may have resulted in reduced prevalence of autism

There is no justification for withholding such studies given the importance of safety first in vaccine products and the past apparent absence of such studies

Furthermore there is ample evidence of earlier warnings of potential harm from the use of mercury/thimerosal in vaccines and there may be a case for criminal culpability in its continued use over time and in Flu jabs

The prospective harm to pharmaceutical industries and the cost of making reparations to affected individuals is irrelevant when the scale of damage to humanity at large is taken into the account.  The alternative will be increasing resort to the courts and a rising tide of evidence of harm and a world-wide bonanza for lawyers.

The industry has rampantly abused competition and criminal law in most countries of the world.  Why would its behaviour around its products be different and exempted from justice whilst at the same time paying multi billion dollars in fines over its commercial activities?

During a twenty year career with a multinational corporation, eventually becoming Head of Corporate Affairs in Europe and the Middle East, Tony Bateson became drawn into fighting for resources for his autistic daughter.

Developing ten successful projects, now collectively raising over £ten millions each year,  has  been followed by a partial break to commence an MSc course at Oxford University in Computer Science (now half completed with an Advanced Diploma) as IT and new technology subjects become of potentially urgent importance for the voluntary sector, to which is now to be added a further spell at University in Oxford to help to develop Social Enterprise as a more widely used tool of meeting community needs.