It's not that the symptoms are different, it's how they affect women that are different. Women tend to fly under the radar of Asperger's diagnosis because of some of these things. For instance, women tend to be able to command expressions a little better overall than men, so in an Aspie woman, a psychiatrist may mistake that as being neurotypical because the woman can mirror gestures and socially blend in better than a male can. But it doesn't mean she doesn't have to think about it. The obsessions usually aren't identified because females are sort of known for being obsessive? For instance, an Aspie woman might collect hundreds of recipes. Why would a psychiatrist think that was weird? She might collect books and books of pressed flowers or pretty gems she finds, or antiques. But the most that would tip off a psychiatrist would be, if it were in so much excess that the family had to step in, possibly having an anxiety disorder. There's not a whole lot a man could collect in that amount that would be normal for a man to collect, except boxes of smut magazines, guns, or things Aspies don't generally seem to be interested in anyway.
It's sexist, yes, but psychiatrists and psychologist do separate female and male psyches as being inherently different because of hormones, so while it's sexist and detrimental to females in the Aspergers community, it's a fact we have to deal with. You will frequently get psychologists telling you that you don't have Aspergers because you may be better at blending in socially than a male, but that doesn't mean squat. If you feel the way you feel and it aligns with Autism symptoms, it's probably some type of Autism. It's not like diagnosing cancer or diabetes (I'm pulling this from Autism Speaks who seemed to compare Autism to a terminal illness like a bunch of dolts) where you need a thorough medical exam and you 'could maybe have it, or it could be a benign tumor, or it could be 50,000 other things like a cyst'. No. If a woman feels she probably has Autism, she probably does, and she needs to be persistent with her doctor about getting to the bottom of it and not be told 'no' because she's a woman who's flying under the radar.
'Scuse me, I had to rant.