Gender Bias (against females) in Diagnosing Autism

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Well, it's not as if us females didn't already know this, full article here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 094029.htm

Autistic boys are also much more likely to be picked-on and targeted by their peers for it, or at least to a much worse extent than autistic girls usually are. That would obviously play a major role in making them stand-out more for diagnosis.

One point I'll make is women in general have more empathy than men. So a woman with autism will more likely have more empathy than a man with autism.

There is an article about that on the website of the NAS

Extract:

The presence of repetitive behaviour and special interests is part of the diagnostic criteria for an autism spectrum disorder. This is a crucial area in which the male stereotype of autism has clouded the issue in diagnosing girls and women.

The difficulties in the diagnosis of girls and women arise if clinicians continue to use the narrow definitions set out in the International Classification Systems. It cannot be stressed enough that diagnosis and full assessment of needs cannot be carried out by following a checklist. Proper assessment takes time and detailed evaluation is necessary to enable a clinician to systematically collect information which not only provides a diagnostic label, but more importantly, a detailed profile of the person.

Full article here:

http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/a ... ctrum.aspx

I remember chatting to a friend last year who though he is not a clinical expert, is an authority in working with people on the autistic spectrum. His department is responsible for official Autism Care within his county (I won't say which county, but it is in the UK), and he has spoken at many conferences and co-worked on published papers.

But anyway getting back to the point, he was getting quite angry about the fact that females are far more likely to be misdiagnosed as OCD or Bi-Polar than to be recognised as ASD. this often leads to them being prescribed unnecessary medication and being sent to inappropriate psychology sessions. He was quite frustrated that many of the females who should have been under his departments care were getting the wrong treatment, and that the few who do eventually end up on his doorstep, were damaged by inappropriate treatment.

A few other Autism specialists I've commented about this to have confirmed this to be true, and expressed the same frustrations.

So I don't think its a case of the symptoms not being visible (though in milder cases that can happen). I think its a case of the people involved being prejudiced in their diagnosis because females are seen as silly OCD girls who are more likely to be Bi-Polar. This is very wrong and should be addressed before too many young women are messed up by lack of understanding.

Luckily where I live, official diagnosis can only be given by someone who specialises in Autism or Aspergers Other Psychologists/health officials can only refer patients to an autism specialist for diagnosis, not make one them selves. This means that when you do get a diagnosis it is usually very accurate, and not based on misinformation about what ASD is or should be. But if a proper referral isn't made in the first place then that diagnosis can never take place. This means that a lot of females are being badly let down by the system that is supposed to help them.

I remember chatting to a friend last year who though he is not a clinical expert, is an authority in working with people on the autistic spectrum. His department is responsible for official Autism Care within his county (I won't say which county, but it is in the UK), and he has spoken at many conferences and co-worked on published papers.

But anyway getting back to the point, he was getting quite angry about the fact that females are far more likely to be misdiagnosed as OCD or Bi-Polar than to be recognised as ASD. this often leads to them being prescribed unnecessary medication and being sent to inappropriate psychology sessions. He was quite frustrated that many of the females who should have been under his departments care were getting the wrong treatment, and that the few who do eventually end up on his doorstep, were damaged by inappropriate treatment.

A few other Autism specialists I've commented about this to have confirmed this to be true, and expressed the same frustrations.

So I don't think its a case of the symptoms not being visible (though in milder cases that can happen). I think its a case of the people involved being prejudiced in their diagnosis because females are seen as silly OCD girls who are more likely to be Bi-Polar. This is very wrong and should be addressed before too many young women are messed up by lack of understanding.

Luckily where I live, official diagnosis can only be given by someone who specialises in Autism or Aspergers Other Psychologists/health officials can only refer patients to an autism specialist for diagnosis, not make one them selves. This means that when you do get a diagnosis it is usually very accurate, and not based on misinformation about what ASD is or should be. But if a proper referral isn't made in the first place then that diagnosis can never take place. This means that a lot of females are being badly let down by the system that is supposed to help them.

@Venger: I would like to see the proof of this. Many females on this site were badly bullied, myself included. Bullying is not something that makes someone stand out for assessment of an ASC, their behaviours are. Some autistics were never bullied. If bullying was a diagnostic criteria the figures for autistics would be way higher!

@MR_BOGAN: untrue about the empathy; I scored 8 on the EQ and have male brain gender. Even if you are talking about empathy of the NT bullies this is not true. Children generally have lower empathy than adults because life hasn't taught them about the pain of experience yet.

@ NEtikiman: it is untrue that females do not tease nor physically attack/beat up. I have been severely physically attacked at school and as an adult - on each occasion it was females and post-attack verbal teasing was also from females. You are a male and are falling victim to the very stereotypes that the NT clinicians have that make females fail to get diagnosed or even assessed. And boys can be just as bad at the underhand nastiness you describe such as gossiping and rumour spreading.

@Cinnamon: many females do have special interests, it's just the subject of the interests that is often more "normal" than their male autistic counterparts. In fact there is a thread on the Parents forum about this at the moment and some parents of autistic boys say their son does not have special interests either, so it would appear it's variable whatever gender. The NAS need to be more specific as they may make things more confusing by saying that females do not have this behaviour.

@zer0netgain: then how do you explain so many of us suffering alexithymia and dissociative identity disorder? Yet more stereotyping.

And how do you explain the male brain gender of many female Aspies? There are females who outwardly display male presentation of autism. So using stereotypes of females is wrong and very unhelpful.

I expected more "compatriotism" from our male Aspies than this, instead you are displaying the very stereotypical beliefs that have put us females in this situation in the first place.

When I was younger, between my insurance company and me, probably fifty thousand dollars was spent trying to figure out what was wrong with me, and I walked away from the process disgusted, and with no diagnosis. When I was finally diagnosed by a psychiatrist, she was female, told me very irritably that I had Asperger Syndrome when I asked, and then moved on as if it wasn't any big deal. By the "gender discrimination" logic, what I experienced was discrimination against males.

But since I don't walk around with a chip on my shoulder, I'm not at all convinced that "gender discrimination" exists. But that doesn't mean there isn't a problem. I think the problem is doctors who are more concerned with status and money-making than practicing medicine with the welfare of their patients in mind.

Until the quality of doctors improves dramatically, I think the best we can do is to look to each others' experiences for guidance, and not think that there is some kind of big conspiracy out to get any of us. Rather, I think what we're looking at is what Hannah Arendt referred to as the banality of evil, which describes doctors perfectly.