"Strikingly, up to 80% of individuals diagnosed with ASD are male, suggesting sex-specific neurodevelopment underlies this condition."
There's also a suggestion that women have more social pressure/conditioning to act a certain way and thus are more efficient at an early age at "masking" symptoms of ASD and less likely to get an opportunity to be tested. Maybe there can be multiple suggestions though (yes, rtfad).
80% is indeed a striking imbalance though, I had no idea it was this high, and I don't know if social conditioning alone is enough to explain it. Not to mention that according to this study itself, when considering ASD-like behaviours, "an estrogenic fatty acid alleviated these features and reversed detrimental neurodevelopmental gene expression." So it seems to really be something based in the biology.
There’s a growing consensus that this number is way, way off, considering just how good women tend to be at masking compared to men.
I’ve met many women with the same story that didn’t even know they were autistic until they heard someone explain “masking” behavior as an autistic coping mechanism, and they said: “wait, isn’t that what everybody does?” They then go to a doctor to help them understand, etc.
Lots of actresses have it, some of them are public about it.
I’m surprised to see that 80% number cited without bold caveats mentioning the limitations.
Historically most clinical studies up until around the 2000’s were done with a large percentage of participants being white men, often times there were NO WOMEN in the study.
A lot of rework is being done, which is great to see, but that’s going to take a long time before we have a true understanding of the variations between sexes caused by nature and/or nurture.
Females are often under-diagnosed with ADHD as well, the going theory being that males are more often hyperactive type and females inattentive (people can also have both characteristics). The boy running around the class being disruptive is more likely noticed than the girl always looking out the windown.
There's also a suggestion that women have more social pressure/conditioning to act a certain way and thus are more efficient at an early age at "masking" symptoms of ASD and less likely to get an opportunity to be tested. Maybe there can be multiple suggestions though (yes, rtfad).