Are females underdiagnosed?

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.

I’m 18 and a female and I have only just been diagnosed with autism which as been hard as I haven’t had any support until now. I think females get under diagnosed as they display a lot of different symptoms to males and most research on autism is actually on males with autism. A lot of females with autism usually get misdiagnosed with anxiety or depression. Apparently females are also better at masking there autism and can cope better in social situations. 

Even, I think some of the stuff out there on females is outdated. For instance there's a "checklist" online (by someone who i think is quite well known) which says autistic women tend to not wear make up and have "wash and wear" hair. 

People haven't believed me either as I'm good at hiding myself and keeping things inside. 

wow! that must have been so difficult to feel different and not know why. i was undiagnosed for the first 16 years of my life and that was long enough. when did you first realise that you were autistic?

yeah maybe, i was just researching and saw that women are supposedly underdiagnosed

yeah

people didn't believe me when I told them I am autistic because apparently, I don't seem autistic. and then I started thinking about how different sexes typically show different signs so maybe that was why they had said it

Most of the research done on Autism in history has been on boys and men with Autism. Therefore, when women and girls don't fit this research (since it is mostly done on males) they aren't diagnosed.

Most research I’ve found says the figures are staggering. No one thinks to help young women who are keep quiet or mask well. Autism has even been classically identified as a purely “male disability”. 

I have suffered all my life with not knowing what's up with me, I'm 65 , back in the 60s my behaviour was classed has naughty, autism word didn't exist. 

I'm undiagnosed 

I honestly don't know the answer to this. I've never considered it before. It seems like too big a subject for me to delve into because my own diagnosis takes up almost all of my attention. How would they begin to measure whether one sex is under-diagnosed or not? Would they just look a the numbers of diagnosed males and compare them with the number of diagnosed women? Or would they look up the number of women who go for assessment and do not receive a positive diagnosis? That said, I wouldn't be surprised if under-diagnosis exists across all groups in society.

Maybe it's more an atypical presentation of autism rather than gendered.

I think autism is very much noticed on behaviours. You can have the "same" wiring as someone who outwardly shows behaviours but internalise it instead. 

What are your experiences of it all?