Autistic Females: Truly Different, or Is It Hearsay?

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I remember that when I first started seeing people on WP suggesting that females tend to manifest autism differently than do males, the idea was not presented as fact.

Now I see people here stating it as if it is a fact.

Has something happened to establish this idea more firmly? Some sort of conclusive research?

What traits are different between an autistic male and an autistic female?

I'm not sure what all the differences are supposed to be. Something about females making less social errors or less noticeable social errors because they mimic other females, having interests that aren't as odd as males, and not acting out as much as males.

It is said that autism, especially of the "high-functioning" variety is diagnosed in females less because socialization, in general, is more emphasized in females than in males during the formative years of the females/males.

This has led to frustration on the part of females because, owing to their apparent ability to "hide" their autism through their ability to exhibit superficial social behaviors, they are ignored, are not given the proper accommodations, and are falsely diagnosed with other disorders.

It is said that the male/female ratio within all autism spectrum disorders is approximately 4-5 males to one female. If this was reflected on WrongPlanet, 15-20% of users would be women, and 80-85% of users would be men. This is demonstrably not the case. Men might make up a slight majority on this Site---but women are quite well-represented, too. The ratio might be more like 55-45 in favor of men.

The above is not absolutely conclusive evidence that male and female autistics exhibit gender-specific symptoms--but it does argue that a hypothesis which states that females are "under-diagnosed" should be put forward, and research conducted therein.

Some research has been performed with the above in mind--but there is no absolute evidence that males and females consistently present differently in autism, or that there are specific "masculine" or "feminine"-type symptoms in autism.

I've heard an autism specialist from my region say that the simple fact of being female seems to protect one against autism, like with many other conditions that are more common in men than women, and that it presents itself a bit differently in women. No one exactly knows how or why.

I'm finding the focus some interested parties put on female autism and nothing but a bit disconcerting. As if guys were privileged even in autism. I read an article lately that complained that there were no resources for Aspergirls to learn to deal with puberty, female friendship codes or romance. There isn't any of this for guys either...hence why so many of us find themselves at the absolute bottom rung of society or check out entirely.

I'd like to see one single issue where toxic gender politics aren't artificially injected.

Tell me about it. I feel like this just causes more issues and pushes aside more important matters. :/
I do realize that girls have more issues getting diagnosed, such as myself. And while even though to me, and to the people around me it couldn't be more obvious, I don't see how blaming the opposite gender for my struggle is going to make me feel any better. How is it the men's fault that autism is recognized more often in men? It's not their fault at all, it's just the misconception of an ill informed practitioner.
(Sorry if I didn't explain myself well, not sure what words to use sometimes..)

What are you talking about?? What does this have to do with my thread? Who blamed anyone for anything in any way related to this thread? Please stop derailing my thread.

THEN STOP INJECTING IT INTO THIS THREAD. Jesus Christ.

I can only speak from own experiences.
I don't believe that "aspie traits" are different in males and females, I believe it's more to do with how we show those traits to the world.
My son was diagnosed 18 years ago, yet it's only been in the last year after my son came across some info on female aspergers that we realised that there might be a connection.
After a lot of further research I'm not only more than sure about myself but also my daughter seems to have a lot of the traits, just seen to world in a completely different way.
I can't believe how blind I've been.
The main difference I see with myself, my daughter and my son is that my daughter and I seem to care about how we come across, what others think about us and definitely put on an act to try and fit in, my son is who he is and too bad if you don't like it ( luckily he's quite a nice guy).
It's the whole nurture v nature thing, were born with the same traits but society nurtures us differently ( if that makes sence)

Like people have said, it seems to be more related to socialisation and how that impacts presentation as opposed to core traits and causes being different. It's a nature-nurture debate and I'd argue the nature is the same but the nurture is different.

I suppose one way to find out would be if you took a sample of infant males and females with ASD and raised them in a controlled setting and then tested whether there were between group differences... obviously you can't do that but hypothetically I can't imagine there would be any significant differences.

Um.. sorry... I was only commenting to someone else's comment. I know I'm not very good at staying on topic and such. I honestly was intentionally trying to derail anything. I'm honestly new to forums, and I thought it was okay to comment on someone else's comment..

A research study and references:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4164392/

Including this study (see bibliography):
*25. Mandy W, Chilvers R, Chowdhury U, et al. Sex differences in autism spectrum disorder: evidence from a large sample of children and adolescents. J Autism Dev Disord. 2012;42(7):1304–13. [PubMed] Assessment of ASD symptom severity, IQ, and behavioral problems finds sex differential expression of these phenotypes, including increased repetitive stereotyped behaviors in males.

This meta-analysis study from Pubmed may also interest you Starkid:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23989936

What about females who can't hide? Sorry if I changed your topic...

It states "discussion continues" and "further work is needed". This doesn't sound firm or conclusive.

Theorist: There is a difference in how females present Autistic traits

Skeptic: This is not a valid claim because there is no evidence to support this

Theorist: I have read hundreds of reports saying the same thing

Skeptic: That is not evidence. It is heresay. Just like minded people confirming each others biases

Theorist: Stop patronizing the experiences of #Actuallyfemaleautistics

Skeptic: Emotional appeals are not a substitute for multiple peer reviewed studies. Not valid.

We are going to continue to have conversations going in circles like this on multiple autism topics as long as most researchers do not even consider the experiences of autistics because claims can never be proven or disproven if they are never studied in the first place.

The second study was a meta-analysis of 22 studies. They didn't conclude "given the results, further studies are unlikely to yield anything significant".