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'gender incoherence' and Austism

James

A friend is reading Hendrickx's Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder (2015) and highlighted the following section. I have put it in this discussion board because I wonder what people's responses are.

Hendrickx writes "testosterone levels in women with autism were higher than control samples and that these women displayed more masculinised characteristics. It also found that men with autism presented more feminised characteristics, indicating that rather than women with autism being more masculinised per se, both genders may be more androgynous and represent a 'gender defiant disorder'. They go on o suggest that, 'gender incoherence in individuals with ASD is to be expected and should be regarded as one reflection of the wide autism phenotype.""

The frequently cited reference for this passage, omitted for readability, is Bejerot et al, ' The extreme male brain revisited: gender coherence in adults with autism spectrum disorder' (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../)

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  • First Post here!

    I will check out this study tomorrow. Looks very interesting.

    I will say though, a single study should be treated with a great deal of caution. It may be correct, may not be correct, just hard to say without more research. The example I give for this that I recently looked into is hrt in women, with earlier work causing panic, then later work suggesting it's probably more beneficial than not, in younger women, though even that isn't clear.. And we are talking a lot of studies, and meta studies. So a single study, be cautious.

    Anecdotally though, male here, I would consider myself more on the female side, trait wise, though I look very masculine and can be quite competitive, if I choose to indulge that. But I do have a softer side than most men appear to have. I would guess a large part of that is me caring a bit less about showing, and admitting that than most men, however.

    That's a big confounder tbh, as its possible autistic men aren't as driven by social norms, and the social norm is veey skewed towards not showing (and not self admitting) "feminine" traits. The same likely applies to women (hiding more masculine traits may be socially unacceptable), and NTs may be more driven to hide / suppress those traits.

    I am completely speculating however, haven't read the study and don't know much about autism yet (diagnosed just over a week ago. 

    Very very interested in this though so will look further. 

  • in reply to BlendedSpob

    Thanks for your message, - particularly the stressing of the need for caution and perspective.

    Hope things are going well - or at least being clearer - after your diagnosis.

    (And welcome to the boards, and welcome to the community!)

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