Hi everyone. I sometimes think about something and then can’t get it off my mind... this has been on my mind for the last week.
People often say that females are underdiagnosed with autism or that they get a later diagnosis than males, what’s everyone’s opinion on that? Is it true? And if so why do you think it is?
I belive it to be tru.
I have had lerning difficulties from an early age.
My mum being a Teacher Asssistant in a primary school she noticed a difference behaviour. I was told at the age of 8 my epilepsy was the reason why i struggled to understand & why i had learning difficulties.
14 i was diagnosed with pychosis, at 16 with dyslexia & 26 with Autism. Much harder to sink in when everyone for years just thought you was “the odd one” or “weirdo”.
Since being diagnosed They now believe the pychosis realy was just a meltdown & if i had an earlier diagnosis alot of the trauma i experience i probably wouldn’t have gone through .
https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/costs-camouflaging-autism/
This was a nice read too
this is an interesting read
there is still research ongoing on how female autism presents
This is a place for discussion. You're embarrassing yourself by being so defensive. I replied to your thread with Tassimo, trying to explain something to him that was related to your point.
I wasn't changing the subject, I think you're taking this a little too far. I've reported your comment anyway, no need to be so aggressive.
'Listening to Autistic people' you say? But won't even listen to a point I have to make about lived experience being a Female with late diagnosed Autism? Odd that.
If you want to join a conversation you don't suddenly change the subject, that's interference as I said.
Joining a conversation is joining them on the same subject then continue. If you were trying to explain something to someone else you respond to them.
Excuse me? I was trying to agree with you. No need to be rude. I literally am a female with Autism and was trying to give Tassimo another perspective since he doesn't quite understand (from what I've read). That was extremely uncalled for. It was another side to your exact argument, I was not changing the subject and I think you've really read into my reply wrong.
If you see my comment below, I made a similar point to yours. I think you need to take a step back and be less defensive.
Do you think I haven't thought about that or something? I've studied Autism for over 20 years, I came to see gender effects how males and females are affected before the professionals even noticed.
I came to know that by listening to Autistic people, while already knowing the history, by hearing subtle differences between males and females with the females sharing they were not diagnosed until their late teens or twenties.
This conversation is about how many females are diagnosed, you don't enter conversations and change the subject, that's interference.
Also perhaps we can think about the amount of males that get an early diagnosis (and then get support in childhood) compared to the amount of females that get diagnosed in childhood. it can be harder to get an adult diagnosis for some, so many women go unsupported throughout their childhood and then in adulthood struggle to get diagnosed.
I think a better way of saying "under diagnosed" is "fewer females are diagnosed".
The ratio is approximately each time 4 males are diagnosed only 1 female is diagnosed.
So it's not a measurement of a diagnosis, it's a question of how many autistic females are undiagnosed.
What is puzzling me is how they measure under-diagnosis. How can you tell whether one group is under-diagnosed in comparison with another? It doesn't make sense to me unless it's by picking an arbitrary figure for diagnosis.
I think it's true. I personally was hiding in plain sight!
I don't think that autism is gendered but I do think that, although the definitions of autism have been changing, they are still influenced by some of the earliest studies which focussed mainly on young males. This stereotyping in the diagnostic processes and criteria has, I believe, led to a massive under-identification of autistic females. Baron-Cohen's idea of the "extreme male brain" did nothing to help either.
And so we have some rather strange ratios of male:female. Females also seem to be somehow blamed for "camouflaging" and making things difficult for diagnosticians whereas in fact those diagnosticians got things wrong. And some of them are still doing it. To my mind, and, especially given the largely hereditary nature of autism, the ratio is likely to be 1:1, and even that ignores any consideration of LGBTQIA+ issues.
According to neurodiversity there's another spectrum we're all on that explains so many of the behaviours like keeping things consistent.
Neuroscience shows autistic brains are like systemizers, going from an emphasizing side to a systemizing side. So many behaviours like routines, consistency, control, rules etc. are all principles of systems.
What they see is most females are on the emphasizing side and most males are on the systemizing side. Men stood out much more compared to females, females were more willing to emphasize and blend in. Very few are near the middle having a balance systemize and emphasize.
Because of the emphasizing they couldn't see it in females, females emphasized as far as pretending to be part of a group standing at the edge, then go to the edge of another group making it appear as if they have no social difficulties at all. Fortunately they noticed this in the end.
Are you un-diagnosed because you haven't asked for an assessment or because you've had one and it came back as negative?
Thanks, Daniel, for the explanation. It's bizarre that they would only assume males could be autistic. I wonder why they thought that... could it be that females have a different condition to males or that they don't present the same traits as males or with the same intensity?
piggy1405,
It's true that it is more difficult to diagnose females on The Autism Spectrum. Historically, it was assumed only men could be Autistic so all the criteria is from observation of Autistic males making it gender bias.
Females are better at hiding their "autism traits," while it's not usual for a young boy to hide his autism. I've listened to a lot of autistic people share their experiences and I can see subtle differences between how males and females are affected.
Some of the females I've listened to shared that the diagnostic test failed them, eventually they were diagnosed but it took multiple attempts.
Females getting diagnosed at a later age and more being missed is true.
Tassimo,
It's true that more females are undiagnosed and even misdiagnosed sometimes. Historically, it was assumed only men could be autistic so all the criteria is based on the observation of autistic men making it gender bias.
