OK Tylenol, so it is you then

When the politicians declared that pregnant women taking Tylenol could cause autism, I couldn’t stop thinking. I told myself: maybe Tylenol has many other effects that they haven’t yet admitted. Maybe there are things they know but haven’t said. So I started digging into my own memories, flipping through the pages of the past, searching for a link between the problems I live with and paracetamol.But with my mother gone for five years now, and my father long before her, there was no one left to ask. The disappointment was heavy, because I wanted to know if my suffering had anything to do with that pill my mother may have swallowed while carrying me.Read: Dr. Jabir Jassam: Why is everyone in Ottawa walking funny?I must have drifted into sleep, because suddenly my mother was there, in front of me, in a dream. I thought: here is my chance. I greeted her, kissed her, and said, “Mother, I have so many questions.” She smiled and said she was ready.“Did you take paracetamol when you were pregnant with me?”“Yes, I did.”“Many things happened to me that may be because of that.”“Like what?”“Why am I shorter than all my brothers? Could it be because you took paracetamol while carrying me?”“Maybe. Your brothers are taller because I didn’t take it with them.”“Do you remember the neighbour’s son? He was tall too. Do you think his mother didn’t take it?”“She’s right here beside me now, asleep. I’ll ask her.” Two minutes later she returned. “She said she did take paracetamol—but it was locally made. Maybe that’s why it didn’t affect him, and he grew taller than you.”“Why did you take it, mother?”“I used to get terrible headaches when I was pregnant with you.”“So I was already giving you headaches in the womb. And I’ve never stopped. I’ve always been the one causing headaches to everyone around me.” I paused and added, “And that leads me to something else. I can’t keep quiet about mistakes. Every time I see something wrong, I speak up. And then people attack me. Do you think this is also because of paracetamol?”“No, I don’t think so. But I believe the mothers of those who attack you probably took it when they were pregnant with them. There’s scientific evidence for that.”“Where did you get such evidence?”“From the head of the council at the time.”“What council?”“The Council of Pregnant Women.”“And where is she now?”“She died.”“How?”“She choked on a paracetamol pill.”Then she looked at me and said, “You can tell people that if a pregnant woman takes paracetamol, her son will grow up to be aggressive, unable to tolerate others speaking the truth.”I shook my head. “I can’t say that, Mother. We live in a time when doctors and researchers are no longer allowed to speak the language of science. That privilege belongs to the politicians.”I hesitated, then asked her one more thing. “And what about my inability to tolerate injustice and the absence of fairness? Could that also be connected?”She said, “I once heard the head of the council say that a child exposed to paracetamol cannot bear injustice when he grows up.”“Don’t you think the real reason is that the mothers of oppressors were the ones who took paracetamol while carrying their unjust children?”She shook her head. “No, I’ve never heard that. An oppressor is born an oppressor. Life only polishes him until he is ready to oppress.”“Thank you, mother,” I said. “You’ve answered some of my questions. Maybe I’ll come back to you another time.”Suddenly I woke from my nap with a pounding headache. I took two Tylenols and walked out.Dr. Jabir Jassam is a family physician in Ottawa.

OK Tylenol, so it is you then

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