Female-To-Male Transsexual People Have More Autistic Traits,

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 103241.htm

"May 5, 2011 — A new study from Cambridge University has for the first time found that female-to-male transsexual people have a higher than average number of autistic traits.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) funded study, published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, has important implications for the clinical management of biological girls with gender incongruence that persists into adulthood, and for the 'extreme male brain' theory of autism.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at University of Cambridge, led the study with Rebecca Jones, now at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. The team included Professor Richard Green and Dr Domenico Di Ceglie, world experts in transsexualism and gender incongruence in young people respectively, and by Emma Martin, a clinical psychotherapist and herself transsexual.

The researchers measured autistic traits using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), and compared AQ scores from five groups: 61 transmen, 198 transwomen; 76 typical males; 98 typical females; and 125 individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS). They found transmen had a higher average AQ than typical females, typical males and transwomen, but lower than individuals with AS.

Simon Baron-Cohen interpreted the results as follows: "Girls with a higher than average number level of autistic traits tend to have male-typical interests, showing a preference for systems over emotions. They prefer not to socialise with typical girls because they have different interests, and because typical girls on average have more advanced social skills. Both of these factors may lead girls with a higher number of autistic traits to socialize with boys, to believe they have a boy's mind in a girl's body, and to attribute their unhappiness to being a girl."

Rebecca Jones added "If such girls do believe they have a boy's mind in a girl's body, their higher than average number of autistic traits may also mean they hold their beliefs very strongly, and pursue them to the logical conclusion: opting for sex reassignment surgery in adulthood."

Domenico Di Ceglie, Director of Training and Research at the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London, commented: "These are important findings in the field of gender incongruence, which need to be replicated. The awareness of the presence of autistic features may help these young people to explore the reasons behind their perceptions, and help them make more informed decisions about treatment."

Emma Martin, who runs a Gender Identity Support and research group in Little Downham, UK, welcomed the new findings, and added two important caveats: "This new research reminds us that gender incongruence is incredibly complex. Every possibility should be discussed with new clients, but should not delay what can be a painfully slow process for those affected." "

Journal Reference:
Rebecca M. Jones, Sally Wheelwright, Krista Farrell, Emma Martin, Richard Green, Domenico Di Ceglie, Simon Baron-Cohen. Brief Report: Female-To-Male Transsexual People and Autistic Traits. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2011; DOI: 10.1007/s10803-011-1227-8


This makes a lot of sense to me.

how will casting-off their female bits make them happier? it's not like the current surgical state of the art can make them whole men.

No, and I've often thought it's a pretty drastic step to take

I feel male in my head a lot of the time

My friends are usually male and I relate far more to a male thinking style than a female one and I've often envied men their friendships but I can deal with it and have no need to change my body to fit in with this feeling as I am female and like being female

I can deal with the split between my thoughts/thinking style and my outward appearance - they don't have to correlate all the time to make me a 'proper woman'

I tend to form relationships with men who are more in touch with their female side so it balances out

All people are a mixture of male and female

i feel female in my head most of the time, but my body keeps reminding me that it is a male body with male urges. i think this makes me crazy sometimes.

I seem to compete for alpha male status with typical NT males and seem to have the same opinion of most women as a lot of men have ie they're silly and inconsequential - just there to look pretty and have babies ie I act like a sexist male yet I'm female!
I don't fancy women though; I can't stand most of them so certainly wouldn't want a relationship with one. People of my own gender are far more of a mystery to me than men though.

Ahem. I'm trans, ftm. And it's not my head that's the problem. Brain, completely top notch. Body is the problem.

My body makes me want to die, and not because I have logically decided x is true of me, so I must do y! Because every time I am reminded of my female bodily characteristics it hurts so much I have to stop and try and calm myself. It's not this logical systematic decision.

i am an omega male who makes most women [especially alphas] uncomfortable because i behave something like they do in terms of passivity. and alpha males really find me incomprehensible. i find the only solution to all that is to be a hermit in the woods.

Logically though, if you were born a female, what's so terrible about being a female and having a female body, regardless of how you feel in your head?

This is the part I just don't get

It makes far more practical sense to me to stick with the body/gender you were born with and adapt your thinking

many folk find it supremely hard to change their thinking, worlds harder than merely submitting to the surgeon's scalpel.

The one transsexual I've met in person was both FtM and autistic.

So it seems but I just can't relate to it at all - I know for a fact if I felt totally male in my head and found my female body totally alien I'd still live with it rather than have parts of myself removed and altered.

I suspect there are a lot of people who feel they are not overtly one gender or the other but it doesn't matter to them as their identity isn't based on their gender, it's based on them as a person

Most women I meet are the very opposite of passive but I suppose they do often exhibit more passive-aggression than overt aggression, which I can't stand! I like the fight to be out in the open and honest. I hate sly underhandedness.

I seem to have endless power struggles in the standard model bf/gf relationship. I once had a boyfriend who said 'We work well together but you need to let me steer the ship!' LOL

If it made logical sense to you, you'd do it. My point was, my reasons for transitioning are entirely emotion based.

I don't know why having female genitals and breasts makes me want to die. I don't know why every milestone into 'womanhood' has triggered either an extreme depressive episode, or a suicide attempt. It's just how it makes me feel.

I wish I could understand it in a logical way.

I wish I could change my 'thinking', then I wouldn't be faced with the very real threat of losing my family because they're extremely prejudiced against trans people.

If I could not be trans, I would. I really would. But I can't. But I can change my body - the main source of my emotional pain - I can take hormones and have top surgery, and bottom surgery (even though it's extremely brutal depending on the option you go for). I can change it much more easily (although it is by no means easy) than I can just stop getting upset about these issues.

I don't speak for every trans person. Just for me.

Did you feel rejected or not accepted by other females while growing up?

No, both of my childhood friends were females. Every positive adult role model I have had growing up has been female.

I like women. I enjoy women as people. I think find it easier to talk to women, as they tend to be more emotionally open, or at least less likely to shout slurs at me than males. But I am not a woman. Everything physically womanly about me repulses me.

Talk to some trans people, you'll find that generally to be the case (they don't hate the gender they were born as, they hate it applied to them). I just think SBC doesn't necessarily understand trans issues as well as he seems to think he does.

I totally get the strength of your feelings on the matter and would in no way seek to dispute them as you know yourself best

When you mention men shouting slurs at you - has this happened often?