Is autism a man's disorder?
Women generally have better language-dependent skills than men (NT and AS women) so it doesn't surprise me that AS women publish more commentary, blogs etc on the net.
This is an interesting link:
http://www.madisonhouseautism.org/autism_in_women/
lostonearth35
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That's a lot of hogwash. Females are just as likely to be autistic, we're either just not as obvious as males, or society is still more forgiving to us for being "weak", or both.
I've been reading stories about women who were told by so-called professionals that girls don't have autism. And I'm like, jeez, are we all still living in the 1940s?
Right now the results show 14:26 which is almost 1:2 male:female ratio. So female autistic are more common... on this forum.
The reason might be that male autistics are not interested in forums though.
In case of my family though the 1:2 ratio seems about right.
My oldest aunt seems autistic, her younger brother(my father) seems "Aspergian" and I(girl) have diagnosed Asperger. 2 female, 1 male.
+
My NT youngest aunts(youngest sister of dad) husband seems "Aspergian" and their 2 daughters(my cousins) have a lot of traits, especially the younger one. So the 1:2 ratio still seems valid.
No. Just no, it's not. It's underdiagnosed in women and girls, not non-existent. Please do not return ASD women to the category of invisible non-existent people. To call Autism a "man's disorder" is like calling it a childhood disorder. Autistic adults exist. Autistic females exist.
_________________
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 141 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 71 of 200
You are very likely neurodiverse (Aspie)
Official diagnosis: Austism Spectrum Disorder Level One, without learning disability, without speech/language delay; Requiring Support
The understanding of female ASD symptoms makes me think of cardiac arrest symptoms which are always given as the classic male type. Female arrest symptoms are quite different so many women do not realise they are arresting. They assume because they do not have the classic male presentation it cannot be an arrest so they don't always get help in time. Getting medicine to recognise female specific symptoms of anything seems beyond most Dr's and if they don't get it what hope is there for the general population and even if a woman suspects she has something she will often be brushed aside as neurotic especially as there isn't a definitive diagnostic test for ASD. The diagnosis is dependent on a clinicians opinion.
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I have a piece of paper that says ASD Level 2 so it must be true.
There is an outstanding blog called Heart Sisters which very comprehensively covers the gender bias in cardiac diagnosis and treatment.
And you are right: much of cardiac research was done on male only samples, and the same is true of autism research. The gender bias may be even greater in autism diagnosis (for females) than in cardiac diagnosis.
The reason why I was diagnosed and spotted at my late childhood because I refuse to 'pass'...
But it could've been worse. One mainly and could mistaken me bipolar or AD(H)D. Or some mood/personality/social/psychiatric disorder that I never had, or consequentially had.
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The reason might be that male autistics are not interested in forums though.
Yes, many forums have more female than male users, though I think in this case it might also be that they're more interested in this topic rather than in the whole forum.
In real life, whenever I met someone who seemed autistic and was not one of my family members that person was male. However, that's likely because more males have the stereotypical symptoms and are more obvious. I don't think people who don't know me well would realize I'm autistic. Sure, they'd realize that there's something wrong with me but they'd not know what it is.
My brother was also diagnosed much earlier than me because his symptoms were more obvious and more typical, but since we're just two people he might simply have more obvious symptoms independent of gender. In similar situations when we reacted in similar ways people would also interpret our behaviour differently. People seemed to perceive him more often as rude or weird in a way they couldn't interpret at all while they perceived me more often as shy or scared. The difference likely was because I have more/different facial expression and body language than him but maybe gender also contributed to it.
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