In The Politics of Autism, I discuss gender differences in autism identification.
Jackie Flynn Mogensen at Scientific American:
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, boys are about three times more likely to be diagnosed as autistic than girls are. Scientists have sought an answer as to why that imbalance exists: some have argued it is to do with male and female brains; others have proposed that genetic differences or some other biological factor could hold an answer. And there is evidence that some girls and women are misdiagnosed—or missed altogether.
But a new study involving millions of people in Sweden shows women and men are almost equally as likely to be diagnosed with autism by adulthood—suggesting younger girls may be underdiagnosed and possibly missing out on critical care.
Scientists followed 2.7 million children born in Sweden between 1985 and 2020, about 2.8 percent of whom had been diagnosed as autistic by 2022. In early childhood, boys were much more likely to receive an autism diagnosis. But as the cohort aged, the researchers identified a “catch-up” effect—by age 20, women were almost just as likely to have received an autism diagnosis as men. The research was published in the BMJ.
