Women with autism may be going undiagnosed because it's a 'male disorder'.

[Isabeau]

Hundreds of thousands of women with autism may be going undiagnosed because it's a 'male disorder' - CBC

Happé told Quirks & Quarks that overlooked female autistics tend to be "high functioning" and without intellectual impairments.

But most still struggle with things like social interactions, sensory information and behavioural problems that are frequently mistaken for other maladies, or simply ignored.

[...]

In 2017, a group of researchers from University College London in the UK published an epidemiological study in an attempt to find the true male-to-female ratio in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autism is more common in males, but how much more common was a matter of some dispute.

The group reviewed 54 studies that included 14 million participants aimed at identifying individuals with autism.

But they found a discrepancy. Different methods predicted quite different numbers for the frequency of autism in women. The discrepancy came from how autism cases are identified in studies, said Dr. Happé.

Some studies simply compared numbers of individuals who had been diagnosed with autism. These studies found that there was about one autistic woman diagnosed for every four autistic men.

Another approach used active screening. Researchers would interview an entire cohort of people. and identify those who might have the condition and follow up with them later. This method captured people who hadn't been diagnosed, and revealed a previously unknown population of autistic women.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Great article! It makes me wonder if other mental disorders that are thought to have a strong gender bias are actually evenly split, but social norms make some stand out more in one gender or the other. Women are expected to be more passive, so certain mental disorders just don't stand out as much in them. Alternatively, maybe histrionic personality disorder is just as common among men, but men with it blend in with the "manipulative fuckboi" archetype that people talk about.

 

[Robert Jung]

ADHD in women was often missed until recently as well.

 

[EmpressOfCommunism]

I was one of TWO girls diagnosed with autism in western Canada until age 14 or so, and was a bit of a lab rat because of it. I hope me and my partner in lab ratness helped blow away the gender stereotypes surrounding the disorder a little, I can't even imagine how many girls and women suffered silently from misunderstandings and poor care back when it was "males only" and today.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

In the UK, The Times (evernote link because £wall) reports that

A father has won an extraordinary legal battle against a council that sought to gag him from speaking about the forced confinement of his daughter.

Bethany, 17, has been detained for almost two years in a psychiatric hospital. The teenager, who has autism and suffers from extreme anxiety, is locked in a cell-like room with only a mattress and chair and is fed through a hatch in a metal door.

She is detained despite an assessment in June concluding that “the current setting is not able to satisfactorily meet her individual care needs” and a recommendation that she move to a residential setting in the community with high support.

Bethany’s case highlights the growing crisis in which vulnerable children are referred to psychiatric units, her father said. The number of children with a learning disability or autism in such units has more than doubled, from 110 in March 2015 to 250, according to NHS figures. About 465 people aged 18-24 with learning difficulties are also residents of inpatient units rather than living in community settings, as the government intends.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Again in the UK and again in The Times: Autistic woman "pimped out" in care scandal (Evernote link because £wall)

A young autistic woman was allowed to have sex with numerous men because her carers were said to believe that high-risk encounters with strangers might help her to “learn from her mistakes”, it can be revealed today.

The woman, 23, who has severe learning disabilities and an IQ of 52, was repeatedly exploited during a court-approved, two-month trial period this summer in which random men were permitted to visit her Manchester care home between 10am and 4pm each day.

In this case, it seems her intellectual impairment is a primary problem but it's greatly complicated by the fact her autism manifests itself as an obsessive sexual interest in men from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds to her own.

Admittedly the Court of Protection's earlier decision

in 2015 that the woman was able to consent to sex but lacked the capacity to “make decisions on her contact with men”.

sounds horribly complex to implement properly, but the care home and psychiatrist seem to have behaved appallingly badly.

(Akk.. can't get a link to work for an article on the legal background -- Evernote's fault, not Cris'. Nor can I copy/paste it): Care scandal: Courts must strike balance betweek autonomy and protection


More background here (Evernote):

The young woman is now safe from immediate harm, but a dilemma central to the case for the past five years remains unresolved. Her litigation friend said that those involved in her care have faced difficulties in “attempting to reconcile their responsibilities to safeguard her as the vulnerable adult she undoubtedly is, with their desire to promote her independence”.

An added paradox is a 2015 court ruling that she “has capacity to decide whether to engage in sexual relations but at the same time lacks capacity to decide as to contact with men”. How should that circle be squared? An autistic woman with severe learning difficulties has an obsessive sexual interest in south Asian men. She has a “substantial sexual appetite” but no understanding of “the risks she faces when pursuing sexual activity”.

The Court of Protection must determine her best interests. The recent handling of the case has proved so challenging that future proceedings have been transferred by Judge Butler to the High Court. No date for the next hearing has been fixed.

In a letter to the woman last month, the judge said he realised “that you think that what is happening to you is unfair. You want to make your own decisions and to be treated as an adult. You want your freedom.

“The puzzle (for everyone) is how you can have your freedom and be safe at the same time. This is what everyone wants, including me.”

 

[Rose Karuna]

OMG I just have no words for this: Autistic woman, 23, had sex in public after being 'pimped out by CARERS'

She is also said to have had sex in public several times - including behind a bowling alley - after being taken out on "dates" to shisha bars after the care company paid to look after her refused to intervene.
Staff were taking part in a court-approved trial this summer that allowed her to be visited by strangers between 10am and 4pm each day, The Times reported.
It was hoped that the scheme — run by private firm Engage Support — would encourage her to refrain from risky sexual behaviour, according to court documents. (right because mentally ill people who engage in risky sexual behaviour need more of the same???)
Manchester council opposed the plan, arguing it would "inevitably expose her to a very significant risk of sexual harm, violence, abuse and trafficking".

What kind of people would make a decision like this for a mentally ill woman? WTF?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

OMG I just have no words for this: Autistic woman, 23, had sex in public after being 'pimped out by CARERS'



What kind of people would make a decision like this for a mentally ill woman? WTF?

In English law, someone is capable of consent if, in the view of the Court of Protection, she or he understands what sex is, and what its consequences may be, including pregnancy and STDs.

The Court of Protection is not required to say whether a particular relationship is a good idea or not. Its role is to decide if the person under its protection is capable of giving meaningful consent.

In effect, we've got circumstances in which someone is capable of consenting but not really capable of making what most people would regard as safe decisions about who she wants to have sex with.

It looks horrendous but I'm not sure the alternatives are much better. Should she not have been allowed to marry her husband (apparently it's a genuine relationship) or never to have sex with anyone? Or should she be allowed to have sex with her husband but no one else? Or what?

 

[Kara Spengler]

It is not just a sociological thing either. When something is tied to one gender or the other it just is not studied as much beyond that gender.

For example, epilepsy used to be seen as primarily a male issue. After spending WAY more than the average transwoman on hair removal I decided to do some digging. The anti-epileptic I was on since a kid had not been studied much with women when it was being originally released and I am guessing men did not complain as much about excess facial hair.

 

[Rose Karuna]

In English law, someone is capable of consent if, in the view of the Court of Protection, she or he understands what sex is, and what its consequences may be, including pregnancy and STDs.

The Court of Protection is not required to say whether a particular relationship is a good idea or not. Its role is to decide if the person under its protection is capable of giving meaningful consent.

In effect, we've got circumstances in which someone is capable of consenting but not really capable of making what most people would regard as safe decisions about who she wants to have sex with.

It looks horrendous but I'm not sure the alternatives are much better. Should she not have been allowed to marry her husband (apparently it's a genuine relationship) or never to have sex with anyone? Or should she be allowed to have sex with her husband but no one else? Or what?

Honestly Innula I don't know. I wonder if the men having sex with her know of her condition? I mean going to the home from the hours of 10 and 4, one would think they would right? If so, what kind of men do this? It's just all very sad.