Fewer Pregnant Women Took Tylenol After Trump Admin Warning: Study

Researchers examined data from hospital emergency rooms.

Tylenol and acetaminophen tablets in a CVS store, in a file photograph. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

After federal officials in the fall of 2025 warned against pregnant women using Tylenol, fewer women took the pain reliever during pregnancy, according to a new study.

Orders for Tylenol, also known as paracetamol and acetaminophen, dropped 10 percent for pregnant women in hospital emergency rooms, researchers said in the paper, published March 5 by The Lancet. The time period studied was Sept. 22, 2025, to Dec. 7, 2025.

In contrast, no statistically significant change in Tylenol use among female patients in emergency departments was recorded during that time.

The Trump administration on Sept. 22, 2025, said that Tylenol use during pregnancy was possibly associated with autism, pointing in part to a 2025 review of studies on the matter.

“Don’t take Tylenol,” President Donald Trump said at the time.

The Food and Drug Administration said in a notice that acetaminophen is the safest over-the-counter option in pregnancy for fevers, but that due to the possible connection to autism, “clinicians should consider minimizing the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy for routine low-grade fevers.”

“Although causal claims cannot be made, the observed associations are consistent with influence of new FDA recommendations on clinical decisions,” Dr. Jeremy Faust, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Michael Barnett, a health professor at Brown University of Public Health, wrote in the new study.

“It is unknown whether the results reported reflect changes in patient demand or clinician decision making; nonetheless, they show the apparent power that public authority figures have to drive sudden changes in health-care practices.”

Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA’s parent agency, said in a post on X in response to the paper that “delivering a message about a specific neurological risk for babies is another example of our commitment to telling the truth about public health.”

Limitations of the study included the lack of information on Tylenol use outside of emergency rooms. Faust and Barnett said that because the records cover a substantial portion of the population, the findings “probably reflect general prescriber patterns and attitude.” They declared no conflicts of interest.

When officials made the Tylenol announcement, they also said that prescription folinic acid, or leucovorin, can help alleviate symptoms in autistic people. The researchers said they found that new outpatient leucovorin prescriptions for children aged 5 to 17 skyrocketed by 71 percent during the study period.

The jump may have led to a shortage of the drug, Faust, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, wrote on his blog.

Some manufacturers have run out of leucovorin and are waiting on new orders to arrive, according to the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists. In late 2025, the FDA said it was allowing the temporary importation of leucovorin tablets from Canada and Spain to address a shortfall in the United States.