Is autism a man's disorder?

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I've heard that autism is 4 times more common in men than in women, though I wonder if it's because of certain stereotypes that prevent women from being diagnosed, for example the false premise that autistic people lack empathy which would lead to fewer women being diagnosed.

Yes, there are some very significant barriers for women seeking diagnosis. A lot has been written about this topic, of how women present differently and missed diagnosis can occur from many factors - doctor ignorance (very often reported on WP) or belief in the myths (ditto) and AS women are generally much better at "passing" as NTs as a deliberate acting strategy to avoid discrimination on the basis of their AS status.

And that's just scratching the surface. I am very concerned about the many barriers for AS women seeking any kind of help or diagnosis in the medical system, so (finally) I got around to creating a blog about it (last week). And there's a thread on the general topic of Barriers to Good Health Care for AS women on the front page of the Women's subforum here on WP.

Back to your question: although no count has been done that I know of, the ratio of men to women seems about 50:50 here, which sort of contradicts the 4:1 commonly quoted, which I suspect was started by a particular researcher who doggedly promoted his own theories about autism as a male disorder. In fact even his own research didn't really support the idea very well in the opinion of many in the research community. But it helped sell his books and was profitable for him. I don't believe it has any validity. Autism Speaks frequently quotes it, or did, which doesn't surprise me; they have worked quite hard in the past to promote all kinds of myths stigmatising AS people, because that too is lucrative for them.

I've always noticed that there is a 50:50 female/male ratio on WrongPlanet.

I've also noticed the same thing.

I didn't know this, until now.

I think the presentation is slightly different in females (there are many recent books about it), also girls develop many masking strategies while young to pass as normal and are constantly encouraged, or even forced, to do so. Many, apparently, have pretty good verbal skills (sadly it wasn't the case for me) and their obsessive interests often revolve around people and animals - which seems kind of standard for a little girl. Girls also engage in imaginary play more than boys with autism, sometimes to the point of only interacting with imaginary friends.

I know that many women struggle to get a diagnosis, because on the outside they may look/behave just like neurotypical women (maybe there's "something's off" feeling, but not very strong), engage in conversations and keep eye contact, maintain relationships, only behind closed doors the mask falls off, exhaustion becomes unbearable and the autistic self comes out.

the questionnaires are still asking the same stupid things, how about a rewrite ?
and getting the double-questions out too, they're a pita, how come that's still on

- "do people tell you you do X?"
what if you know you do X, but no one ever tells you?
(i suppose, that's asked this way because you're ret*d and can't know yourself)

Yea, I see a lot of males and females here. It's not exclusive. I also USE to see a lot more racial groups. I shouldn't bring that up. The same thing that happens in different racial groups is the same thing that happens with males and females. There's differences in the sub cultures leading to different rates of diagnosis. Why would it occur more frequently in certain groups? I don't know.

latest i've found these questions very (agist is thenewbuzz) geared toward the youngest too,
something about train-travel and wanting to find out how that works, well you can't be still worrying and wanting to find out at forty or fifty or sixty still, that is if you can live a normal(ish) life

Am queer, have autism.
But from the autism therapies groups I've been to, it seems a slight leaning towards male, but only very slight. Autistic women were still represented in the numbers.

How do you go to these group therapies? If you don't mind my asking? I don't know who to ask. I have a Psychologist but it doesn't recommend them often.

Yes, yes, yes. We need new questions. Not stupid ones like 'I don't particularly like fiction' How does one answer something that broad. I like well written fiction which accounts for about 3% of the genre. So if I don't like 97% of fiction does that mean I do not particularly like fiction? I have no idea.

^ I find that too. It's incredibly non-specific, and to answer properly one would need to expound, when often those questions require a yes/no answer, or a scale answer from never --> always, which also doesn't allow a full answer, or allow clarification to be had. Grr.

I found most of them through my own research and made inquiries / contacted the people organizing. I was also attending one because I was a test subject for an autism study once at a neurological institution, and they told me my results got me referred to their therapies group, to try and help nonfunctional people be functional.
But it wasn't helpful, to be honest. If you have a high IQ, it was actually less than useless. They treated everyone like they had an intellectual disability, even those of us who were above average.
If you're interested in getting into therapies groups, if it may actually help you, I'd recommend researching which autism organizations are in your area and contacting the general inquiries and ask if they facilitate anything. One note though, which may or may not relate to you - for some of them you did actually need to be diagnosed with autism. I don't agree with that stipulation, but some of them did list it in their eligibility.

Short answer: no.

Long answer: no, but some people (including professionals/doctors) assume so because of sexism.

Females seem to dominate the Aspergers blogs and vblogs.

Nevertheless, the alleged preponderance of males versus females within the "official" statistics remains.