Thousands of GIRLS may have undiagnosed autism because they

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Well, also, he's trying to make it seem like feminists are fine with men being raped, but probably the most conscientious activists against men being raped are feminists.

Here's some clearer fact-checking and discussion without trivializing what men in prison go through:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... than-women

Back to the original topic. The "condition" was first recognized in boys. The followup studies treatments were based on boys. Diagnosis and treatment was based on how it presented in boys. Groupthink took hold. Only now is it just STARTING to be recognized in adults and females. The science here is in its infancy and there still in a lot of non acceptance among professionals. Services are scarce and treatment still heavily influenced based on treatments tested on boys. We have probably hundreds of posts where people who were just trying to make progress and find out who they are were thrown backwards time and time again because of misdiagnosis at best and have been dismissed if not outright mocked by so called professionals. It's heartbreaking

I definitely don't hide my symptoms of autism, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't diagnosed until fourth grade. However, that was mainly because my parents didn't know much about autism before that time.

Okay, it might be the situation that being shy and having strong opinions about sensory issues and even toe walking is considered more 'normal' for females. In a similar way, in a non-WP discussion about assertiveness training, it was pointed out that a female being nonassertive was viewed as more 'normal.'

And I think good treatment is about expanding a person's range of possibilities in a respectful way without insisting that a person be in a narrow box called 'normal' or anything else. And I wish more professionals took the approach, play to strength, be matter-of-fact about deficiencies.

It just a different manifestation of symptoms. My meltdowns calmed down once I reached adolescence. I became withdrawn and was aware what behaviour would be punished. I wasn't picked on but few other girls were nice to me, letting me into their group. I played with boys toys , like full road mats with cities on them that you played matchbox cars on. The boys would hang out with me. I didn't stim past my toddler years until I developed seizures and worsening of autistic symptoms.
There was just not much known about high functioning autism in such a small town too.

My sister told me she thought I was autistic though. Our mum told her to not be so mean.

Now, I know when people are happy, angry or sad. I have strange mimic abilities that make me stand out as unusual than help with social skills but they happen to make me adapt better to the social environment.

If girls do hide autistic symptoms better it's involuntary and may just be something more to do with introversion, and of course there will be girls that don't fit into that group at all. I feel like I have more male autism traits. I'm pretty systematic and stilted in speech. I can be. I'm good at adapting to local slang but when I spend time on physics books my language can become quite formal.

I have a friend that does in depth research into girls underdiagnosed with autism. I'm bombarded with all her research links. I think there is definitely something there.
Girls are even under diagnosed in ADHD. I once had a teacher trying to justify this to me. Yeah, ADHD with the hyper parts may lead to more disruptive behaviour but ADHD-PI (what girls are commonly - but not always- diagnosed with) can be a very serious disorder to be left untreated.

I'm an Aspie female and I don't really have any of the common stereotypes. I am not superior in math, science or technology (those are the 3 main subjects I struggled with in school).
I don't pace about and flap my hands and I don't rock backwards and forwards, I never have done any of those common Autistic stims even as a young child.
I don't need everything explained to me crystal clearly, in fact I get bored or stressed out if people explain things to me in every little detail.
I have more emotions and irrational thoughts and common sense than I do logic.
I don't have any odd sleeping or eating habits.
I was potty-trained by age 2 and a half, and never looked back.
I have good hygiene and good sense of fashion style.
I don't go non-verbal when reacting to stressful situations, and I can express my feelings (in fact I do it too much).

And many more stereotypes I don't have. I can hide my AS, the only thing what I do display often is the anxiety. I can come across as timid, shy and nervous, but that does not scream out AS to others. You can be nervy and shy without having AS. Also I'm not a genius in anything, I'm just average. I think being too genius in things can actually give away Autism sometimes.

I certainly didn't hide my symptoms, though I lacked some of the big stereotypical stuff. I had a good imagination, I was very loving and cuddly, I had no big/obvious stims, and math was my worst subject. However, I did have a lot of major sensory issues (especially with clothing, loud sounds, bright lights, and smells), I had a hard time making friends and relating to my peers, I didn't make eye contact, I had auditory processing issues, I had meltdowns, I had some small stims (like standing on the sides of my feet and twisting my fingers), I had a hard time understanding the concept of teasing and not taking it seriously, I had some fine motor difficulties (took me forever to learn to tie my shoes), and I could go on and on about the same topic for months (usually animals). I'm still like that now, for the most part.

I saw a psychiatrist for the first time when I was in kindergarten, and I was promptly misdiagnosed and put on antidepressants, which did nothing. I don't know if my misdiagnosis had anything to do with me being female or not. It might be worth mentioning that the person who diagnosed me seemed kind of confused by me and my behavior (according to some things my mother told me when I first started considering going for an ASD evaluation as an adult), so maybe he just wasn't educated on ASDs. It was also only a year after Asperger's had been introduced in the DSM, though I continued to go there for counseling until I was 15 or 16, so you'd think they would have realized. Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter now.

I think my autism wasn´t discovered at a young age on the account of me hiding some symptoms (I was convinced that I was going to be put away in a mental institution if I displayed behaviour that differed too much from that of my peers ´cause I´d seen some movie about a schizophrenic woman) and because virtually no one knew anything about Asperger´s or HFA were I lived. My ADHD (not officially diagnosed because my doctor didn´t find it necessary) on the otherhand I think wasn´t discovered because I´m a girl.