Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi Everyone,
I have a friend who is autistic and he has had gastro-intestinal issues his whole life, or as far back as he can remember anyway and he is awaiting a colonoscopy. I am also autistic and have had my own issues with this too. I have been reading different studies and scientific research online and have found that there may be a link between autism and bowel problems. I know from personal experience that all the autistic people I have encountered in my life have had a lot of bowel and tummy problems from a young age. I wonder if any of you have had a similar experience or have managed to resolve these issues in your self and what tips you may have to ease this? Hopefully more research is done on autism's connection to gastro-intestinal problems instead of research money going towards trying to invent cures using old drugs like Suramin for example.
Hope everyone has a good week.
Yep, I have IBS. It's generally triggered by anxiety and certain foods- I did the FODMAP exclusion diet which resulted in me identifying wheat and some fruit as trigger foods. I've been able to eat more or less what I did before by using gluten-free replacements and that's helped a lot, but of course the anxiety-related aspect of the IBS hasn't gone away.
I also have endometriosis on my bowel, which has a lot of GI symptoms that overlap with IBS and as such took a long time to diagnose. There's very little research on whether there's a link between autism and conditions like endo, possibly because of the issues women have with access to both autism assessment and specialist gynaecological care, but I did read that the rate of menstrual difficulties reported by autistic women is very high. So that's another aspect of this for anyone who's having periods to consider!
Yeh sadly woman have poor access to support for autism and any difficulties they may have. They often go undiagnosed for long periods which can cause all kinds of damage. They never used to think women and girls really got autism. They always thought it was just boys and men because women show it differently that to men and boys.
Yeah, I've been on the receiving end of a lot of that treatment- every physical issue I have, as well as my autism, was all dismissed as me being a hypochondriac with anxiety. I do have anxiety, but I've been living in a world built for able-bodied neurotypical people and the anxiety came out of that, it didn't happen the other way round.
Unfortunately a lot of damage has been done as a result of all of this, both physically and mentally. I worry a lot about how many other women there must be out there who are in the same situation I am.