Is there info on female AS please

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You can believe whatever you want. I just get annoyed when people spout their own personal opinions as fact because it's misleading to others. This board actually stresses me out at times for that very reason.

I completely disagree that Dr. Attwood is "guessing based on circumstantial and irrelevant data." It's true that there is no completely objective way to measure the ratio of males to females affected, but I think the estimate of 4:1 is based on the best data we have available. It's a lot more sound than any intuition of the ratio being 1:1.

I completely disagree that AS is only "vaguely similar" to autism, as does the published literature. AS is considered an Autism Spectrum Disorder that likely has the same causes as autism. They are considered closely related and there is even hot debate about whether AS and the high functioning end of autism are different at all. The patterns observed in one are very relevant to the other. Therefore I think extrapolating data from Autistic Disorder is a perfectly sound action.

well...I read the article and I never said what "I" thought the ratio is because ..how would I know....I just wanted to stress the point that he believes that more research is needed before we can come to a conclussion about the ratio...yes, he "theorizes" that it will reflect the same ratio as autism in general...and perhaps it will(if anyone bothers with even doing the research)but I dont think he said it was "written in stone' that the ratio is currently proven to be 4 to 1...it is his "theory"...I am personally not "intuiting" anything myself...I just like that he acknowledges that many women are currently going without a DX, gave "possible" reasons why and has empathy for them as the "over-looked" and "unsupported"....seems like a nice guy....

well ok, so you want the rules of having As, to bend to fit more females in? i think if a female has As she will show all of the signs the males show, unless its not a disorder for them but for the dudes

Its a disorder thats there whether its obvious or not. Females are typically more adept at pretending to be normal and people not noticing but that doesnt make it any easier for them than it does for males.. its probably more distressing because they have greater pressure to be social all the time.

To say its ok that females with it are commonly overlooked or misdiagnosed is to brush their pain aside and say its not a problem so long as the majority of men with it are found and helped.

Apparently the ratio of males:females was 10:1 when the diagnostic criteria was set out in a very "male" way, but once the experts had realised that women had Asperger's Syndrome but showed it differently and adapted their questions, the ratio dropped to 4:1 for children and is now 2:1 in adults seeking and getting a diagnosis.

I guess you could keep a room-full of psychologists debating for a week on why it's double for adults. Perhaps women are better at disguising this stuff.

Either way, they were clearly missing a huge number of women at a young age. There again, is seeking an actual diagnosis the important thing? Or would it sometimes just be better to have better information out in society?

Could it be a ratio of 1:1? Perhaps we'll never really know. If women generally find ways to cope better, or end up behaving more "normally" (at least in terms of society's expectations of "normal") maybe larger numbers of them would never think to find out why it's such a struggle and why it never felt like they fitted in?

Could it be 1:1 on the basis of genetics? Depends on the genetics. If the differences are mostly on the Y chromosome, then men would be affected more than women, I guess. We don't know yet. We may have to wait for the scientists to work it out.

well i think thats just wishfull thinking now, females pretend to be normal so thats why they don't show signs of it? well i mean maybe they don't have it, or maybe they have a social anxiety disorder. please don't turn this into a feminine problem, but thats typically what happens when females are involved like they have it so hard. males have it alot harder in this world all around. what leads me to believe them not having As is just that, if they know how to "hide" thier symptoms they don't have As. because people with As don't hide there symptoms or don't even know how to.

Actually most sex-linked diseases that predominantly show up in males are carried on the X chromosome, not the Y chromosome. Although this is counterintuitive, it is caused by a well documented scientific phenomenon called X inactivation. Only one of the X chromosomes in females is actively being transcribed; the other X chromosome is completely silenced. Therefore if a female has an X chromosome with a copy of gene coding for a defect, then she can simply silence that X chromosome and use the other one. However, males have no choice but to use the one X chromosome they have, whether it has a gene coding for a defect or not. Thus females would have to have the version of the gene coding for the defect on both of her X chromosomes in order for the defect to show up, while males only have to have the version of the gene coding for the defect on the one X chromosome in their genome.

Males have it harder? How do you figure that? Isnt it considered somewhat normal and common for males to be emotionally distant? Women who are that way are considered weird.

Anyways hiding symptoms doesnt make the cause go away.. if your having a heart attack and dont tell anyone your still having a heart attack.

To say people with AS dont or cant hide their symptoms is stupid.. what do you think most of us are training ourselves to do?

If it was impossible why is therapy aimed at doing just that?

i don't think males hide there emotions on purpose or hide thier emotions, i think thats social taboo or something. and if they do its always from a womans point of view. Obviously women might show more emotions, than a man but i think thats just what nature intended.

And your compairing apples and oranges, we are not training ourselves to do anything, we are learning how to cope with our condition, to lesson its effects on our lives. training and learning are two different things. training has to do with a skill, learning has to do with the mind.

If you ask any doctor, If people with As can hide there symptoms more than likely he/she will say no, since As has to do with a develoupmental disability, Where the individual never had/learned those skills. So its impossible for someone to "hide" there symptoms because they never had them in the first place. you can't hide something thats not there.

And women do have a much easier time in the world, all they have to do is be cute, wear a miniskirt with there tits popping out of there shirts, and they can get almost anything they want.

There are people at work Ive seen every day for 7 years who dont know theres anything wrong with me.. to say its impossible to hide is just your opinion probably because you gave up.

If I hadnt gone seeking a diagnosis myself and gave the doctor my symptoms I would never have been noticed.

So dont tell me women with AS arent easy to overlook.

As for your sexist remarks Ill just pretend you werent being a pig and ignore it

[quote="Featherways"]Apparently the ratio of males:females was 10:1 when the diagnostic criteria was set out in a very "male" way, but once the experts had realised that women had Asperger's Syndrome but showed it differently and adapted their questions, the ratio dropped to 4:1 for children and is now 2:1 in adults seeking and getting a diagnosis.[quote]

Just curious, what did they change?

Forget this moron Fraya, anyone with half a brain understands what you are saying.

And might I add that you are doing an exhalent job wording your points, I especially liked the bit with the rabbits.

Except for respect, which is what most people want the most, and it is harder in general for women to get than for men. Most sociologists do agree with that point. Men are often seen as stronger or superior, while women are expected to be conflicting things - such as wonderful at work, home, and sex objects. Not that things aren't difficult for men, but do you REALLY think it's easy to get everyone to love you for a perfect body? Do you think it's easy to look good in the first place? Do you think it feels good to be seen as nothing more than that body? Do you think it's easy to feel inferior because models are portrayed in ways average people without professional lighting and airbrushing can't compete with? And what about the hundreds of situations where scanty dress is completely out of the question? I have to get by looking like a 16yo while in my twenties and try to get taken seriously without my body doing it for me. Do you think that when I go into clients' homes and work with their mothers that a miniskirt and low-cut top will get the job done?

I've only been here a short time, but I get a lot of bad vibes from you, so I'll just ignore anything further.

/tangent

i like how everyone is completely ignoring everything i said in this topic but those two sentences i wrote. but i expected that, i think we all know why or atleast i do.

This is only halfway true. There are two types of AS symptoms:
1) things that you DO because you have AS, like stimming
2) things that you DON'T do because you have AS (things that normal people would do), like not understanding that saying "you're fat" to a fat person will hurt their feelings, or not speaking with emotion or inflection in your voice.

For symptoms that fall in the #1 category, you can hide those. If you stim by hand flapping, you can sit on your hand, or make sure it stays in your pocket so that no-one will see you do it.

For symptoms in the #2 category, you really can't hide those. If you have no way to tell if something is offensive, you won't be able to tell what is OK to say and what isn't. The best you do could is to not talk, I guess. And you can't really hide lack of inflection or emotion in your voice, again, unless you don't talk.

For things in the #2 category, you can kind of work around them once you become aware of them though. If someone tells you that your voice is flat and monotone, you could maybe take some drama classes, or speech therapy or something, but it would be a "work-around" rather than a "true fix" for the problem.