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aspergers and gender dysmorphia

markjulips

Hi - I have a 31year old son whom I think may have a mild form Aspergers but has never been diagnosed as it never entered our heads before my neice started having "problems" with her young son and he was diagnosed with autism (which made us do a lot of reading and research with her).  My son has an extremely high IQ and always been good at mathematics and computer programming and has always had obsessions in the past which have always fizzled out when he finds another.  He finds it extremely difficult to make friends, keep a job and has always had relationships with girls but when they end he gets depressed and suicidal.

Last year he revealed he has gender dysmorphia since having counselling sessions after when a psychologist suggested his failed relationships could be because he feels uncomfortable in his male role and I am concerned that this may be yet another obsession which will be irreversible if he does become a woman.  He has now been gioven the go-ahead to take hormones after 4 hours of specialist couselling and 1 seesion with a specialist psychiatrist.

Have any other parents been through this sort of thing or do they think I am just clutching at straws and just watch him go ahead?

Parents
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    NAS22687 said:

    I can say with absolute certainty that it would have been a serious blow to be told I had to wait for an autism assessment before gender dysphoria would have been investigated.

    I don't doubt that at all. You would not have been in the right frame of mind and probably did not have the right thinking tools at your disposal, to take that obstacle well. In other words, it would have been a blow because you were seriously dysphoric and your rigid, dichotomous (i.e. autistic) thinking patterns would not have dealt with it well.

    Sex change regret is not uncommon but is clearly dogged by vehement opinions on both sides. The Guardian commissioned a study www.theguardian.com/.../health.mentalhealth that found a lack of evidence of benefit and includes the following paragraph

    Research from the US and Holland suggests that up to a fifth of patients regret changing sex. A 1998 review by the Research and Development Directorate of the NHS Executive found attempted suicide rates of up to 18% noted in some medical studies of gender reassignment.

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  • Former Member
    Former Member

    NAS22687 said:

    I can say with absolute certainty that it would have been a serious blow to be told I had to wait for an autism assessment before gender dysphoria would have been investigated.

    I don't doubt that at all. You would not have been in the right frame of mind and probably did not have the right thinking tools at your disposal, to take that obstacle well. In other words, it would have been a blow because you were seriously dysphoric and your rigid, dichotomous (i.e. autistic) thinking patterns would not have dealt with it well.

    Sex change regret is not uncommon but is clearly dogged by vehement opinions on both sides. The Guardian commissioned a study www.theguardian.com/.../health.mentalhealth that found a lack of evidence of benefit and includes the following paragraph

    Research from the US and Holland suggests that up to a fifth of patients regret changing sex. A 1998 review by the Research and Development Directorate of the NHS Executive found attempted suicide rates of up to 18% noted in some medical studies of gender reassignment.

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