Trans people being diagnosed

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I don't feel like I'm male and female at the same time. I was born female and I feel female. When I was a little girl I went through this phase where I kept my hair very long and I only wore skirts and dresses. I had a few "male" interests like math and computers, but I still felt like a girl. I still have "male" interests and those interests don't make me feel like I'm male.

For the folks here wondering about research on the intersection of autistic traits and gender variance, here's the list of what exists (that I've been able to find) in peer-reviewed academic journals. Unfortunately, most of it is written from the clinical/GID perspective rather than a queer/Trans* perspective. As folk have surmised there isn't much because both populations are relatively small and therefore it is difficult to get an adequate sample. That being said, it's a "hot" area right now for those who work in this area.

Basically your anecdotal observations have been born out by the quantitative research. Those with gender variant traits are more likely to have AS traits and vice versa. No causal info.

It's not difficult to find overlap in people's experiences if you ask about it. My current work is a study of sexuality and citizenship (you can find it through my www) for folks on the spectrum. I wasn't even going to ask about gender until my (Autistic) adviser suggested that I really had to. So I did. And I'm glad I did. I think it will be the first stuff in academia on this that doesn't pathologize variation (of any variety), uses qualitative data, and focuses on the experiences of people themselves rather than how others label them.

Reference List
de Vries, A.L.C., I.L.J. Noens, P.T. Cohen-Kettenis, I.A. van Berckelaer-Onnes, and T.A. Doreleijers. 2010. Autism spectrum disorders in gender dysphoric children and adolescents. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 40: 930-936.

Gallucci, G., F. Hackerman, and C.W. Schmidt. 2005. Gender identity disorder in an adult male with Asperger’s syndrome. Sexuality and Disability 23: 35-40.

Ingudomnukul, E., S. Baron-Cohen, S. Wheelwright, and R. Knickmeyer. 2007. Elevated rates of testosterone-related disorders in women with autism spectrum conditions. Hormones and Behavior 51: 597-604.

Jones, R.M., S. Wheelwright, K. Farrell, E. Martin, R. Green, D. Di Ceglie, and S. Baron-Cohen. 2012. Brief report: Female-to-male transsexual people and autistic traits. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 42: 301-306.

Knickmeyer, R.C., S. Wheelwright, and S.B. Baron-Cohen. 2008. Sex-typical play: Masculinization/Defeminization in girls with an autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 38: 1028-1035.

Kraemer, B., A. Delsignore, R. Gundelfinger, U. Schnyder, and U. Hepp. 2005. Comorbidity of Asperger syndrome and gender identity disorder. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 14: 292-296.

Landen, M. and P. Rasmussen. 1997. Gender identity disorder in a girl with autism-a case report. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 6: 170-173.

Mukaddes, N.M. 2002. Gender identity problems in autistic children. Child: Care, Health and Development 28: 529-532.

Perera, H., T. Gadambanathan, and S. Weerasiri. 2003. Gender identity disorder presenting in a girl with Asperger’s disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. Ceylon Medical Journal 48: 57-58.

Tateno, M., Y. Tateno, and T. Saito. 2008. Comorbid childhood gender identity disorder in a boy with Asperger syndrome. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 62: 238.

Williams, P.G., A.M. Allard, and L. Sears. 1996. Case-study: Cross-gender preoccupation with two male children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 26: 635-642.

Thank you for this. Interesting that it's a "hot topic" at the moment - and a good thing, hopefully it is bringing to light some new ideas and information about autism.