Biological sex and the manifestation of Aspergers

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I'm sorry if this question, or a similar question, has been asked before.

As a female-to-male transsexual who perfectly matches the symptoms of female Aspergers, which defies my gender identity, I'm curious if this is common or uncommon amongst trans people on the autistic spectrum. Do most people fit the criteria/symptoms of their biological sex or their gender identity? Do autistic symptoms appear to manifest in a manner which reflects one's biological sex, or a manner which reflects one's gender identity?

Thanks.

Interesting topic. And one where "facts" may be impossible to find or define.
Personal perspectives? I'm genderqueer, and therefore, reflect aspects of a mixture of autism symptoms classically assigned to both binaries. I do however believe my manifestation of autism did change when I entered transition, therefore partially supporting the idea that autism, like transsexuality, is influenced by the endocrine system and the sex hormones. Did I suddenly go from presenting as a black and white case of one gender to a black and white case of the other when I altered that dominant hormonal makeup?
No, but as I said, I'm genderqueer.
Some studies have argued that the gender distinction in autism symptoms is in fact unrealistic and inaccurate, created to justify the fact that autism was once believed to be an exclusively male condition and not recognised at all in females. They assumed, to have missed that, autism must manifest fundamentally differently in girls on a neurophysical level, rather than admit they were just blinkered by their own bias.
Even the fact that gender diversity is so much more common in autistics has been cited to support the "extreme male brain" theory, that the supposed cause of transsexuality especially in your case - exposure to higher than normal levels of testosterone in the foetal stage - in fact accounts for the presence of autism in girls. Autistic females are exposed to a higher level of male hormones, which makes you both autistic, and a transsexual.
That's probably a tangent. Don't even get into the influences of socialisation and culture.

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I understand what you mean about it being a very complicated issue with no definite answers. Sadly, I've always been fascinated by topics such as that. I suppose I was just curious if any other trans people on the spectrum had opinions, or personal observations. I'm still new to this site, actually, despite having joined like 4 years ago. I guess back then I wasn't sure if I belonged here, because despite having intense functional difficulties and feeling very 'different' from other people, I just didn't seem to quite fit the typical male Aspergers symptoms, so I sort of drifted away without ever really joining in. Recently, I've come to the conclusion that it is possible for me to have Aspergers...

I've done quite a bit of research on it and it appears that my particular problems would be well explained by the 'female form' of Aspergers-- things like weak sense of identity/chameleon qualities, better at seeming 'normal', strong emotions linked to interests, naivete, and so on. Plus I have realised I have always suffered from sensory abnormalities.

Anyway, I don't mean to start a novel about myself in this post. I'm sorry. I have a bad habit of talking about myself too much. It's not narcissism -- I have very poor self-esteem -- rather, it's because I've got a constant need to figure myself out. I've always felt a bit like an alien, especially after puberty.

You can only be self obsessed if you're complicated.
Hello and welcome anyway. At the risk of asking you for an autobiography, I've never done much reading on the difference between male and female symptoms, just have a sort of cursory awareness. What other symptoms do you display that are female slanted? It seems likely "high functioning" people of both genders, especially coupled with above average intelligence, would be able to appear normal through learned behaviour, and suppression of their autistic sides. This doesn't mean that side is not there, just that you can't see it as clearly. Socialisation also comes into many of the gendered observations - female autistics may obsess over pop stars / bands or makeup as kids / adolescents, which is considered a socially acceptable position and not immediately recognized as an autistic behaviour, whereas a male autistic teen may obsess over bus routes and wing nuts, and obviously out themselves as autistics.
Here's a question - does it bother you in a gender identity sense that you present more with the female observations than the male, as if it invalidates your masculinity? Or does not displaying the typical male autism traits make you question whether you're autistic?

Well, here's the thing... I think I'd be considered high functioning in terms of speech, understanding word meanings, and voice (not monotone) and probably even in understanding expressions, but I consider myself low functioning in other areas as opposed to a lot of people, especially those around my age - 20s. I honestly feel I have the emotional capacity of a child. Despite being hyper-analytical and cautious, I have trouble controlling emotional impulses like anger and at times, crying. I still throw a sort of tantrums, I'm ashamed to say.

I have horrible executive functioning and need to be told what to do most days or things are not done. I would let myself starve if my meals weren't prepared for me. I usually end up focusing too intensely on my special interests and forget to even go to the toilet until it's painful. I frequently feel overwhelmed by every day chores like bathing and doing my laundry and cleaning my room. I'm clumsy and quite frequently misjudge things like door frames. I tend to get bruises and don't always remember how. I also stim at times, mostly rocking.

Unfortunately, over the course of my childhood, I developed dependent personality disorder. I also have anxiety issues and a few phobias. My condition is no doubt a mixture of Aspergers, being trans, and having spent my entire life up to this point in horrible isolation from 'the outside world'. This isolation by the way may be (and may have always been) cloaking my social difficulties, by the way, because I hardly ever have to deal with people other than close family.

The female slanted symptoms I've read about are things like having more 'normal' obsessions like bands and TV shows, for one. I've never had really unusual interests. I've had especially strong fixations since around 13 but never anything overly technical or odd. Also I've read that females tend to have a weak sense of identity and tend to be like chameleons, taking on the traits and views of either those around them, or people they are fixated on. I've done the latter quite a few times with fictional characters and musicians.

Also my interests as a young child were mainly animal related which seems more feminine. Another thing I've read is that females may be more imaginative and into such play as children, which I was-- I loved to pretend I was an animal up until I was about 10. Also I've always been fascinated by language and words, had a large vocabulary as a child, and have always been quite bored by numbers. I empathise easily with fictional characters and feel strong emotions related to my interests-- I've felt very easily emotionally influenced by my favourite music, shows, and the like.

However, I feel less emotion towards anything that isn't a special interest at the time and I don't empathise well with real people, not in person anyway, and I've always seemed to have unusual/inappropriate emotional reactions to events. (Even as a child, I didn't cry when there was a death in the family. Once, I nearly drowned and when relaying the event I sounded numb and wanted to smile for some reason, so my mum didn't believe me at first.)

Anyway, what I've read about the personality traits etc that females with Aspergers tend to have, it describes me perfectly. Maybe males have some of these same traits. I don't suspect that it's perfectly 'gendered', in the first place. It's simply that until I came across this information specific to females with Aspergers, I ended up feeling that I couldn't possibly have it because I don't love maths and numbers (apart from having a compulsion to calculate ages and dates related to people I'm fixated on) , I don't hate fiction, and I don't have outwardly strange or overly technical obsessions.

In closing, actually I feel a bit of both. Although I think I'm more bothered in the sense of gender identity, upset that my expression of Asperger's is seemingly feminine, which as an already insecure pre-T transguy who is currently unable to transition and pretty much unpassable, it feels rather invalidating and is currently making me question how it's possible for my brain to be seemingly female in several respects despite my conviction that I'm male and the immense discomfort I feel at the idea of being thought of as female and having a biologically female body. I have only recently revisited the idea that I possibly have Aspergers, which I am now about 90% certain of after having researched more.

I don't doubt having autism because of conflicts with my gender identity-- I'd be more likely to doubt it if someone more knowledgeable came up and told me there's no way I could have it because I didn't present with a specific symptom. Mostly I'm just confused because I know I'm transsexual. I came to terms with it about 5 years ago and briefly saw a therapist for it. And I'm, like I've said, about 90% certain of Aspergers now because of things I've read which feel like the missing pieces of the puzzle of what's always been wrong with me.

But I'm also someone with a horribly low confidence and don't trust my own judgement at all. I'm always more willing to believe someone else. So to be honest, I sometimes even doubt I'm 'truly' trans, like that maybe I'm just mental. That maybe I've somehow 'made myself' this way. Or even that my obsessions have made me this way. I have recently questioned if maybe Aspergers is the answer for everything and maybe it is the root of my dysfunction and allowed me to make myself trans, etc. I guess I'll never know and I'm going to have to find a way to accept that and just be myself, the way I am now. Because I know I can't change myself, regardless of what factors made me who I am.

I'm very sorry for this disjointed mess that's ended up being an autobiography. I hope you can forgive me for rambling. I think I just needed to get some of this confusion off my chest. I haven't really talked about it since the self-discovery that I have Aspergers.

I'm a cis female who doesn't really fit most of the profile of 'female aspies'. I do have social obsessions, like fiction and like animals, but I'm also really into statistics, not at all shy, have a lot of issues with meltdowns and aggression (worse when I was a kid), and tended to be singled out as a 'troublemaker' rather than fading into the background.

Anyway, if you're trans, don't worry if your aspie traits are more stereotypical for your birth gender. Firstly, as I've mentioned, cis people can break those stereotypes too.

And secondly, gender-based cognitive differences in non-autistic trans people tend to fit their birth gender rather than their gender identity - at least pre-hormone therapy. For example FtMs tend to have slightly poorer spatial skills and better verbal skills on average, just like cis women. So gender-based cognitive differences have nothing to do with your gender identity.