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What is the hubbub that this is a "male disorder?"

WaterLily

Member
Hi everyone. At 16 I was diagnosed with Asperger's disorder. I would consider myself to be very high functioning. Many times people are just confused when I even tell them.
I have heard alot of crap like "You aren't really female if you have this disorder" or "You are more male if you have this disorder.
Personally I don't understand that correlation. I'm thinking these people are probably just ignorant and that's about it. I guess I'm just posting this because I never really understood how it relates to gender.
Has anyone else ever heard such nonsense like I described?
 
All I hear is that females tend to be more adept at masking, so they aren’t diagnosed as often. Haven’t counted, but I’d guess there are more women than men on this forum.
 
I too have noted that there seem to be nearly as many females as males on autism forums and have always doubted the supposed 4:1 ratio of men to women on the spectrum.
 
There's historically been a widely held belief (that is unfortunately still common) that autism is something that only (or primarily) affects males and, because of this belief, so much research into autism has been focused on autistic males, research excludes autistic females, autistic females are diagnosed with something else besides autism, etc.

And well the end result of all this is you get the nonsense you've heard like claiming you aren't really female if you're autistic (which I'll admit that I've never heard people saying that before, but I have read multiple stories of women being told they can't be autistic because 'only men can be autistic').
 
It's disappointing to see how little people understand about Autism, especially if it's taken you a while to get diagnosed.
 
I'm thinking these people are probably just ignorant and that's about it. I guess I'm just posting this because I never really understood how it relates to gender.
Yes. Ignorance.

It does relate to gender in the sense that roughly 4X as many males are diagnosed with an ASD as females. Now, having said that, the genetic data appears to demonstrate special "protections" of an extra X chromosome, as a higher "genetic load" is required in order for female autism to be recognized. Genetic evidence of gender difference in autism spectrum disorder supports the female-protective effect - Translational Psychiatry Furthermore, it appears that, the "typical" female brain IS different than a "typical" male brain in terms of connectivity (the wiring), the conductivity (the strength of the signals), as well as, the related functional anatomy. Sex/gender differences in the human autistic brains: A systematic review of 20 years of neuroimaging research Science doesn't care what you believe or how anyone feels about that statement. It has been tested and is repeatable, female and male brains are different. The females, as a group, tend to, statistically speaking, demonstrate a different pattern of functionality in the regions involving complex socialization and communication. The end result being that female autistics tend to be diagnosed with other things, or later with an ASD, or not at all, as compared to their male counterparts. The testing for autism, in terms of what they are testing, and how they are testing has a male bias in order to diagnose males. It wasn't too long ago that Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen proposed his theory of autism being an expression of the "extreme male brain". In a subset of autistics, that may be true (myself, for example), but given the current discussion suggesting that a disproportionate amount of autistics also have gender dysphoria and fluidity, not to mention that psychologists are becoming more aware of how female autism presents, we are opening up our minds to the idea that there is quite a bit of neurodiversity even within the autistic community and that autism screening methods need to be reassessed.
 
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I too have noted that there seem to be nearly as many females as males on autism forums and have always doubted the supposed 4:1 ratio of men to women on the spectrum.
There is no 4:1 ratio and there never has been. Autism isn't a gender disorder in any way. Girls, and thus subsequently women, are far better at masking - essentially mimicking those around them - so ASD females are much harder to spot, and far less frequently diagnosed, but there are just as many of them as of men.
 
In regards to the male:female ratio, studies on the prevalence rate by age show that the ratio decreases as age increases.



This points towards the hypothesis that women on the spectrum tend to camouflage more and so if diagnosed, tend to be diagnosed later in life (and researching supports for an autistic child or grandchild is often the way that many autistic women start their self-discovery journey).

To paraphrase Dr. Devon Price, the current diagnosis criteria and mechanisms for autism are skewed towards how much trouble one is causing or how much one stands out. One who masks well and acts polite / quietly, which girls are often trained to do by societal expectations, will significantly increase the chances that they will go undetected.
 
I went severely nonverbal at the age of seven. I was put into speech therapy and diagnosed with Aspergers. It benefitted me greatly. I enjoyed the little learning games between the therapist and me. Sometimes there would be group activities too.

The school district, however, deemed that girls don't get autism. So they stopped paying for my therapy. It was very abrupt and traumatic.

I was thrown back in with the rest of the kids in my class who teased me and said I had "A** Boogers". My parents even yelled and hit me, saying to wise up, be good, etc. For the rest of my childhood, I was picked on by teachers for my behavior. Because of a stupid designation by someone high up in the district, that girls don't get autism.

I always standardized tested as in the 99th percentile in all my classes. I was in many spelling bees, and a voracious reader. This just made it harder for me, because people thought I wasn't living up to my potential. D's and F's, even though I tested so high. I was mercilessly put in detention, beat up, etc.

I hate that part of my childhood.
 
Plain old ignorance - women are autistic too and thanks be to God for inventing autistic ladies so all the autistic men could find a like-minded lady friend. Been there, done that, she's super nice.

Welcome to the forum and I hope you like it here a bunch.
 
I went severely nonverbal at the age of seven. I was put into speech therapy and diagnosed with Aspergers. It benefitted me greatly. I enjoyed the little learning games between the therapist and me. Sometimes there would be group activities too.

The school district, however, deemed that girls don't get autism. So they stopped paying for my therapy. It was very abrupt and traumatic.

I was thrown back in with the rest of the kids in my class who teased me and said I had "A** Boogers". My parents even yelled and hit me, saying to wise up, be good, etc. For the rest of my childhood, I was picked on by teachers for my behavior. Because of a stupid designation by someone high up in the district, that girls don't get autism.

I always standardized tested as in the 99th percentile in all my classes. I was in many spelling bees, and a voracious reader. This just made it harder for me, because people thought I wasn't living up to my potential. D's and F's, even though I tested so high. I was mercilessly put in detention, beat up, etc.

I hate that part of my childhood.
This is disturbing; I am glad that stage of life is over. You are a lot better at being mother to your own daughter.
 
I always standardized tested as in the 99th percentile in all my classes. I was in many spelling bees, and a voracious reader. This just made it harder for me, because people thought I wasn't living up to my potential. D's and F's, even though I tested so high.

Me too! I was in the gifted program, but some years I was lucky to get a C in math. Of course, all I heard was that I was lazy and needed to apply myself.
 
At age 11 I was put in the 'D' stream for the educationally subnormal - it was actually called that. It was easy, but very boring. So one day I walked into the advanced math class for 18-year olds learning calculus, and answered the teacher's questions on solving equations for about 30 minutes. I got put in the 'A" stream after that.

But
women are autistic too and thanks be to God for inventing autistic ladies so all the autistic men could find a like-minded lady friend. Been there, done that, she's super nice.
I'm now married to an autistic woman who is quite literally a complete joy.
 
I'm thinking these people are probably just ignorant and that's about it.
I think this is the real truth. Just last year I had a doctor flip through my diagnosis summary then pronounce "There is no such thing as autism, you are just suffering anxiety.". What an idiot.
 
I think this is the real truth. Just last year I had a doctor flip through my diagnosis summary then pronounce "There is no such thing as autism, you are just suffering anxiety.". What an idiot.
A doctor told me once "there's no way you're autistic; you can study, read, speak quite well, and drive a car."
Hm. And @Nitro can drive a steam-engine or build you a truly remarkable hot-rod, and he literally runs the autism forum, so what's your point, doc?
I think a lot of people are still stuck thinking that autism means we absorbed (something weird) from (deodorant, vaccines, or deodorant vaccines so our veins don't smell funny) and now are stuck not as adults or whatever but as eternal children. Sounds to me they don't actually think.
 
I will reiterate that girls are less likely to be diagnosed in childhood, and are often more adept at social "masking" than some boys. Girls are often more extroverted, and more likely to have "mainstream" interests.

I was fortunate enough to have been diagnosed as a child, but a lot of "professionals" have disputed the diagnosis since I am extroverted and able to mask really well around NTs (but not forever. I have a limit.)
But, there is also no rule saying autistic people can't be extroverted. It's uncommon, but not unheard of.

However, I am absolutely not a good example if you are looking for representation of a girl with mainstream interests lol
 
I think this is the real truth. Just last year I had a doctor flip through my diagnosis summary then pronounce "There is no such thing as autism, you are just suffering anxiety.". What an idiot.
Q. "What do you call the person who graduated last in his/her class as medical school?"
A. "Doctor."

My professional life is an immersion into the thinking and education of physicians. Every once in a blue moon, you recognize that sometimes you don't have to be particularly intelligent to be a doctor. A few manage to squeak their way through, for one reason or another, and end up in some office practice where they can hide away from "real" doctors who also think they are an idiot.
 
When I was 5-6 years old, my parents took me to a doctor because they noticed that something about my behaviour was 'off' and they were worried. I isolated myself, had a eating disorder and just didn't do what the other kids did. He told them it was because I was left-handed, I was just weird and that was the end of that. They should probably have gotten a second opinion. :) 25 years later I was given an ASD diagnosis.
Agree. Always get a second, or third opinion.

The advantage of being in a large hospital system is that you have a care team,...several doctors, nurses, therapists, pharmacists, etc. Everyone has some input, but also, a lot of questions get asked. There's a lot of critical thinking going on. So, even though the lead physician is ultimately responsible, he/she has a team around them questioning their every decision and even guiding him/her through the process.

If you are not in the hospital, but at an office, you and the physician are sort of isolated from that sort of interaction. So, yes, get another opinion.
 

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