Is Asperger's really more common in men? Or...

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I'm not denying that this may have something to do with sex differences, but it's silly to ignore historical and cultural factors. Until very recently, women simply didn't receive equal educational opportunities to men, and women who did try to enter the sciences were often treated badly.

I was under the noses of doctors for years and HFA was never suspected until one doctor finally became smart.

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia first, at 11. Then they decided I was sexually abused because of my self-injury (hitting myself, scratching myself, etc.) and because I didn't talk (assumed it was because of trauma) and I was diagnosed with severe borderline personality disorder at 18. I've never been sexually abused but they ASSUMED I was because I am female.

Doctors don't look for AS/HFA in females. I am obviously very autistic and yet it was never diagnosed until I was 20 and I still can't figure out how they missed it. They believed I was sexually abused even though I repeatedly told them I wasn't. According to them I suffered from "repressed memories of sexual abuse" which is almost a singular female phenomenon (as most repressed memories don't exist and I've never heard of them happening in males).

Doctors diagnose based on symptoms and often they don't care WHY you have symptoms. They often ignore why you do something (i.e. harm yourself) and draw their own conclusions.

I read AS is just as common in women but most of them don't get diagnosed because they are easy to miss. Women are more shy I've read, aspie women tend to be more social, they don't have the stereotypes like with math or science, they might be more into pretend play.

I remember there was a thread somewhere about how girls with AS are effected differently by it and what they are most likely into or what they do and it fit me to a T.

I concur with many posters here, and many researchers, for that matter, that the gender disparities in AS are a function of under diagnosis of females. I would assume that the proportion of men to women with AS would be virtually the same as seen in classic autism. Also, I have read that there is more mental/neurological variation in men than in women (ie: if one were to plot the symtoms for any trait, the graph for men would be more scattered, while women generally follow a standard bell curve more often). This may explain why there are more men with ASD's.

I think it may seem like its more common in men, but thats only because we whine and complain more then women.

It seems to be more common in men, but that's just what people say and may not be true.
I just don't understand how a gender makes it more likely to get something like AS (if it is more common in boys.)

Well, considering that Hans Asperger ONLY studied a relatively small group of boys, it seems logical that women are so often undiagnosed (or misdiagnosed). Nobody has really taken the time to study what AS "looks like" in girls or women. This needs to be the next step in autism research, I think.

Also, being a woman myself, I can say from personal experience how often people negate problems I have...probably just because I am a woman- (I know other women who complain of the same thing). I have had some medical problems in the past, which doctors either just ignored, or told me were "okay", when they weren´t. I think people often don´t take women´s problems seriously, because there is this stigma that women are "hysterical" and soft, when it comes to problems.

I saw a documentary once, of a woman who had an AS daughter. She tried to get a diagnosis for her- the mother recognized the same signs of AS in the daughter as she saw in her sons- however, she went through hell trying to get a diagnosis, because somehow the doctors were just reluctant to diagnose her...( ) I bet this happens a lot. Luckily, the mother persevered- she KNEW- and finally got the right diagnosis.

In my experience and according to the diagnostic criteria, shyness is not a symptom of AS. It seems to be a rampant stereotype, though.

I think it is under diagnosed.

I was only ever considered for an AS dx because I acted out when I was younger.

I've met some girls during my life-time who were uneasy around crowds; passive/quiet; brilliant at academics such as Maths/Physical Sciences/IT; unsure in informal social situations but brilliant in formal situations (as if they didn't know what to do, it wasn't through lack of confidence or ability); had difficulty reciprocating; made social faux pas on a regular basis and had a very formal written language style. They were nice and polite to everyone and were almost perfect students.

They were being treated for other issues like social anxiety/depression and there was evidence that their traits ran in their families.

This can't be a coincidence.
I really identified with those girls and they reminded me of members of my family.
We "clicked" almost instantly.

These girls aren't common, no: I think they are rare in the grand scheme of things.
But any of them that are around seem to "gravitate" towards me and vise versa.

I think that something fundamentally biological is going on here and most people including professionals just aren't picking up on it.

From the diagnostic side, we have a really high ratio of males with ASD to females with ASD. Even at the twin level (which we have a number of) the likelihood of two male twins being on the spectrum is significantly greater than male/female twins. Though the numbers I am familiar with did not differentiate between mono/dizygotic twins, so that could definitely affect things.

I do not have personal experience with the diagnostic protocols, but all of our clinicians are female. Which, in theory, should help offset any predispositions towards gender in the diagnoses. Granted, any existing medical biases might still be in effect.

"all of our clinicians are female"? I think there are lots of men doing the diagnosing, too, though not necessarily where you are. I went to one guy who took one look at me and "knew" I couldn't possibly be autistic. Didn't even need to interview me, though he did give me a token 50 minutes.

Even if the ratio should be 1:4, AS is still underdiagnosed. I mean, 9:1? Come on.

At the same time, women are far more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness than men are. Some of that is that it can still be very stressful being female in today's society, where "male" is the norm for most things. But some of those women may well have a real brain difference that therapy/drugs won't help. There's a writeup of a homeless woman on Amanda Bagg's site I was reading the other day (but it's an older post) - they kept labelling her with a personality disorder.

Feminists aren't really trained to look for ASDs when they work with disadvantaged groups. It would be interesting to see what would happen if they were.

It's also interesting to think of what the field would be like if someday they discover it's equally common in both sexes, and requires the same coping strategies, but the two sexes get different diagnoses because they present differently. There's too much emphasis on symptoms and not enough on the person right now in psychiatry (always has been) but that could change. I'm hopeful.

I've just been reading on how hysteria used to be a female diagnosis, until all those male soldiers got it in WWI. Now it's combat fatigue. Same thing, different image.

An AS diagnosis is more common in guys, but I think AS itself is about 50:50 for both genders.

I have the impression the too high ratio has to do some that some disorders are more commonly associated with females.

And autism is totally not one of them.

If you'd ask random masses of people to sort diagnosis like PDDs, developmental disability, LD, MR and learning disorders and everything that has to do with active behaviour rather than emotional personality stuff to a male or a female person, how many people will put such disorders automatically on boys or men?

Men do, women feel.

Men get disorders that affect their behaviour, women get disorders that affect their feelings.

This is exaggerated, but I swear these are the common associations.

I like to think that happened to me, primarily because the alternative is he "knew" even before he took one look.

I just read a study that backs up your original premise to some extent.
I will try to find the link and post it.

You slut

But yeah, I think AS is probably more common in females than what the statistics state.