POST1: Women on the Autism Spectrum



A major portion of this blog will be focusing on the problems faced by women on the autism spectrum. I came by my interest in this topic naturally. As a woman on the spectrum, I have a personal connection to the topic, and I have a lot of firsthand knowledge about what it is like to be a woman on the spectrum. For example, I was not formally diagnosed with autism until I was 17 years old. This is in part due to the fact that I did not struggle in school, but it is also intrinsically linked to my gender. Autism has long been typified as a male disorder, and, as a result of this, women on the spectrum are often overlooked by parents, teachers, and professionals, especially if they are verbal. In the United States, the diagnostic rate for autism in boys in 1 in 42. In girls, it is 1 in 189. Many women on the spectrum, myself included, have theorized that this discrepancy is due in part to the fact that women present symptoms of autism differently than men and in part due to the fact that parents, teachers, and psychologists do not even consider autism as a possibility when diagnosing women and girls, something that leads to high rates of misdiagnosis for autistic women. 

In addition to being less likely to receive a diagnosis, girls and women are often diagnosed much later in life than men and boys (for many of the same reasons). I was diagnosed at 17, much later than most boys on the spectrum, but I have read reports of women who weren't diagnosed until they were in their 30s or 40s and had children of their own. In many cases, women only realize that they are on the spectrum when they compare their behavior to that of their sons (or, less commonly, daughters) who are diagnosed with being on the spectrum.  This means that women are less likely to receive help with interacting with a neurotypical world from an early age than men, something that undoubtedly leads to increased anxiety and social problems that could have been avoided if they had learned about the fact that they were on the spectrum earlier. 

Through this project, I hope to gain an even more thorough understanding of the problems facing women on the spectrum. I am curious, for example, to find more exact figures as to the number of women on the spectrum who were diagnosed late, misdiagnosed, or not diagnosed at all. I am also curious to see if women on the spectrum are more likely to suffer from mental illness than men. I also believe that my personal experience with being a woman on the autism spectrum will enable me to deliver a more complete analysis of the topic than most other people would be able to do. 

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Comments

  1. mpFebruary 17, 2021 at 1:05 PM

    While I was reading what your blog was going to be about, I was extremely interested in your topic. I had a little knowledge that women on the spectrum weren't as recognized but I didn't know to the actual extent. It is very frightening that we are not able to diagnose women and they aren't able to get the help that they need, in order to live their best lives. I think that since they know that women show the signs for autism differently than men, I would think that they would begin using that knowledge and testing women.

    I would say that it is really hard for women to come to terms with the fact that they have autism especially if they have lived a majority of their lives undiagnosed. I am excited to read the rest of your blog posts and to continue to learn more about women on the autism spectrum.

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    Replies
    1. LongitudinalwaveFebruary 17, 2021 at 1:47 PM

      I think that part of the problem has to do with the fact that most of the differences in how men and women present symptoms are recognized by autistic people, but not necessarily by professionals. There is a long and ugly history of medical professionals neglecting to consider the fact that people on the spectrum know what it's like to, well, be on the spectrum. While autistic people, men and women alike, write a lot about what it's like to be on the spectrum, our experiences are often ignored in favor of the descriptions of us given by neurotypical people (most often parents, teachers, and psychologists who are usually not on the spectrum). As a result, the official diagnostic criteria does not include any mention of the fact that men and women present symptoms of autism differently, and women continue to be underdiagnosed.

      Thank you for reading!

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