What Happened to Tylenol Use in Pregnancy: A Short Guide

In September 2025, the president publicly urged pregnant people not to take Tylenol, and the message appears to have had an immediate effect. Researchers who examined Epic electronic health records from more than 1,600 hospitals compared tens of thousands of emergency visits for pregnant patients before and after the White House event. Acetaminophen orders for pregnant patients fell by 10 percent overall in the almost three months after the remarks, and at one point the decline reached 20 percent, while orders for other, less-studied treatments changed in different directions.

Because the available studies are observational, they can identify associations but cannot establish causation; sibling-controlled analyses in large cohorts have found no evidence that prenatal acetaminophen exposure raises children’s risk of autism, and a recent Lancet review found no clinically important increase in autism or ADHD linked to recommended paracetamol use in pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration has begun a label-change process for acetaminophen, and professional groups have warned that the science is not settled. Clinicians note that untreated fever in pregnancy can carry risks, so treatment decisions should be individualized and discussed with a provider.

The same analysis also recorded a 71 percent rise in prescriptions for leucovorin for children aged 5 to 17 in the weeks after the White House event. By early December, some measures of acetaminophen use were returning toward prior levels. The episode illustrates how high-profile statements can rapidly shift both prescribing and patient choices, which may have unintended health consequences if patients stop needed fever or pain treatment.