Male/Female Aspie Ratio Misjudged?

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I want to know how many of you believe that the ratio of male to female Aspies/ASD members is 1:1 or close to it instead of the usually quoted 4:1 to 2:1. I certainly do. I think that the signs of autism in women are usually misunderstood and therefore female ASDs are often misdiagnosed (as having bipolar, ADHD, BPD, etc.) or considered to be slightly quirky neurotypicals. In my apartment complex there lives a very obviously Aspie young woman who is falsely diagnosed as ADHD, for instance. Granted men are often misdiagnosed (particularly older men who came of age before we understood that autism is a broad spectrum) also but because we tend to be more aggressive and more overtly socially clueless, we don't slip through the cracks as often.

I can definitely say that I pick out male and female Aspies at the same rate. I really know equal numbers of each. Then again, the fact that I am always very perceptive to ASD traits in women (because I would love to marry an Aspergirl) could be skewing the field.

Female Aspies are less likely to be thought of as having poor social skills because they tend to be extremely shy and make much less of an effort to interact, period. Their fixations tend to be more in terms of social/mental sciences like philosophy, history, or theology instead of the hard sciences or technology as Aspie men generally have. They usually absolutely love animals, especially cats and rabbits, which a lot of NT women do as well. Finally, Aspie girls often carry an angelic aura, with an inordinately youthful look and feel, and because of that people often give them a pass for social flaws that would be judged more harshly in males.

Any thoughts?

It can be very well true. But for me, I spot out suspected male aspies at a much higher frequency then females. I think I have spotted out perhaps 3-4x as many males who could be aspies then females. But then theres the misunderstandings so I might not be as adept with spotting out the females since they do blend in with NTs better.

I totally agree with you on them blending in with NTs better.

To me, any extremely shy woman automatically raises ASD flags for me. I attempt to talk to these women as much as possible, even though it is difficult. If it seems likely that they "can't help" being this shy I think there is a good chance they have AS, particularly if they also dress strictly for comfort, have very formal speech, and possess a youthful and naive aura. If it becomes clear that their "shyness" is deliberate social reservedness, or snobbishness, then they are probably neurotypicals.

Well some aspie females that come off as shy can also be misperceived as social reserved or snobbisness, I know that happens with me. As well some female aspies are actually socially reserved out of choice as well. But then theres some NT girls who are actually shy but just are shy.

But your description is not that off. Dressed for comfort, have formal speech and a youthful and naive appearance. Reminds me of a couple of girls who I suspected were aspie in HS. But the thing is that they came off as socially reserved out of choice. They dressed for comfort, they had formal speech, they looked anorexic and they have a youthful appearance. I saw one of them recently, she could quite easily pass off as a 15-16 yr old and shes around 22.

You could use the autism diagnosis ratio of 4/5 to 1 for Asperger's if they're the same thing other than severity, and they say autism is rarely missed. I suppose that it's possible females with autism might be misdiagnosed with just MR or PDD-NOS.

The large ratios of AS that they question are actually like 15 to 1, not 4 to 1.

I believe this is the case.

4:1 is absurd and even 2:1 is pushing it in my mind. It wouldn't be surprised if conventional autism gets missed or misdiagnosed in females more also like you said but the great majority of the people I am referring to are Aspies or HFAs. In the two years I have been living on my own I have met three females with AS (likely four but I didn't spend enough time with one to make a good judgment) and two males at most.

Two more signs that are often a dead giveaway for AS in both sexes are:

--monotone or robotic voice (in women, this generally is an unusually high pitch)
--constant use of metaphors, parables, and "figures of speech" in speech

Both men and women on the spectrum display these things of course but female Aspies tend to have a better grasp and use of language so it tends to be more obvious with them.

Oh yes. Girls and women are underdiagnosed. For me, you're right on the fixations. You are right about the use of metaphors as well. That's largely because with a fixation on theology, metaphor is often the only way to express concepts that are beyond language.

As far as the monotone voice, I think that's a difficulty in modulation. If I don't control my voice I can sound much too intense then people misinterpret me as being angry or agitated when I'm not. I don't think my voice is unusually high pitched, but I suspect for some aspie women that might be another problem with modulation and imitation of NT women. Culturally, women are expected to have higher pitched voices with a rising inflection at the end of sentences as if they're asking a question rather than making a statement. I had some transsexual friends who pointed that one out.

For OP, if you do end up marrying an Aspergirl, for heaven's sake give her some space to discuss her fixations. My Asperdude didn't so now he's an ex.

Just because girls get misdiagnosed doesn't mean the ratio is 1 to 1. It may be more than 4 to 1 (and it probably is) but not even. Shy doesn't equal AS. Also, girls hide it better cause they have to in order to fit in. Girls are not boys with boobs.

I am a female and I don't hide it better.......I gave up on trying to fit in pretty early on when it became obvious I couldn't. People did not nessisarly know I had AS and neither did I. But they knew there was something different just like I knew it.

So maybe some girls do hide it better, but not all of us. Then again I do kinda feel like a guy with boobs so maybe that has something to do with it.

What if the high male to female ratio is actually accurate? Why list all these reasons the ratio is supposed to be wrong, when they just support the idea that less females have AS, based on gender differences? If these hypothetical undetected AS females are aspies, they aren't diagnosable with their lack of clinical significance.

Wait, but isn't literal speech supposed to be an aspie trait? It seems that everything is both a trait and not a trait, I'm confused.

Also, one aspie quiz, not sure which one, showed that males and females where equally likely to be in the Aspie zone, but diagnosed females scored higher than diagnosed males on average, definitely supporting that that the ratio isn't as unbalanced as its believed to be and that girls are under diagnosed.

Also this
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahoJY6V9iuc[/youtube]
Flutters is such a female aspie in this scene.

And not everyone who has the symptoms for a diagnoses gets one for various reasons.

Nice theory, but wrong. Definitely wrong. No matter how much an aspie woman tries to fit in there's always something off so it doesn't quite work. There are still the sensory sensitivities to deal with. Yeah, crying babies and fighting children. Eek! There's the extreme amount of energy it takes to just get through the day appearing normal socially. Executive function issues if present can make you crazy because it makes it nearly impossible to fill all the cultural demands of being a woman in this society. It's nearly impossible to find enough alone time to recharge. Nah, it's clinically significant all right. So is the comorbid depression that often develops.

Hell it takes an extreme amount of energy just to get through the day without appearing normal socially, so I don't even bother with trying to appear normal. Also why should I want to fill all the cultural demands of being a woman in this society? I don't identify with a lot of that anyways.