To find this view re autism frustrating

That's the same with a lot of other diagnoses

You seem totally determined to dismiss the experience of those with profound autism and called people misogynistic when they mention it. You have not actually offered any evidence to suggest late diagnosed females (or males) have the same condition.

Your acquaintances aren’t the norm by any means.And as for your disability top trumps, no thanks. It’s as pleasant as your dismissal of female autism.

You mischaracterises the autism diagnostic process. Nearly every private diagnosis I have heard of arose from a single diagnostic session of less than two hours. That is no longer than those I know getting an OCD diagnosis.

Despite your denials, I know many who do have successful careers and families - as head teachers, doctors, academics…. But even if they are underemployed with disastrous education they are still very different for those with profound autism.

No they don’t, nothing like the autism diagnosis process .

The vast majority of autistic people
are under employed or unemployed, many don’t manage finances, have careers, family, have a disastrous education etc.

Just appalling the way you dismiss late diagnosed autistic women and try to portray them all as having zero disability with zero significant impact on life. They’re let down twice. First time when they’re forgotten and denied diagnosis, then when they do it’s dismissed by the ignorant as not real or deserving.

Hahaha! I was told I had anxiety because none of the prescribed asthma medication worked. I've been told my vertigo is anxiety

There's no blood test or scan for them either

Those all have rigorous diagnostic procedures so….

Hold down independent jobs, careers, family, finances, education. That is nothing like those with profound autism.

Many of us were misdiagnosed with depression, anxiety, OCD, etc

Define manage! They haven’t managed, they’ve been forgotten and misdiagnosed.

Historically autism was classical autism aka profound autism. Those individuals, male or female, could not mask or camouflage. What evidence is there that women who manage through life then pick up a diagnosis at 45 have the same condition as boys and girls with profound autism?

Wow, now we see what autistic women are up against and it’s just appalling.

The gender gap is driven by diagnosis biases , male centric criteria and differences in how traits manifest across genders rather than pure biology.

The foundation of how autism is identified is inherently skewed by historical bias. Early landmark studies in the 1940s focused almost exclusively on boys, establishing a male stereotype for autism.There were skewed tools too.Standard clinical assessments were built around how autistic boys externalise traits, meaning they often failed
to capture the female phenotype. Studies show that girls often needed to exhibit more severe cognitive or behavioural challenges than boys to receive the same diagnosis.

Autistic girls and women frequently fly under the radar due to social conditioning and camouflaging. Girls are often highly motivated to copy social behaviours, allowing them to blend into peer groups. While boys may display visible distress or repetitive physical behaviors, girls are more likely to internalize their struggles, leading to exhaustion and anxiety rather than an obvious behavioral "disruption."

Autistic boys may develop highly visible interests (e.g., train timetables, machinery), whereas girls often possess special interests that mirror neurotypical peers (e.g., horses, literature, celebrities), making them less noticeable.

Because public and medical awareness is biased toward boys, girls face severe diagnostic delays.On average, girls are diagnosed significantly later in life than boys.Before realising they are autistic, women and girls are frequently misdiagnosed with psychiatric conditions like borderline personality disorder (BPD), generalized anxiety, depression, or eating disorders.

As diagnostic tools evolve to look past traditional male stereotypes, the gender gap continues to narrow rapidly. Accepting the old statistics at face value risks leaving millions of women and girls without the critical validation and support they deserve. That is not ok.

Its interesting because a lot of people are seeing misogyny in women being apparently misdiagnosed with EUPD when in fact it autism (maybe, maybe not)

But theres no similar cry for review of the many men who have ASPD, which is more or less the male equivalent

More women get diagnosed with EUPD, more men get diagnosed with ASPD, they are somewhat sexed for some reason, not sure why, a lot of the behaviours are similar, although not the same obviously

ASPD has a lot of overlap with some ADHD and ASD traits too.

What do you think late diagnosed adults really have?

I used to know someone who was diagnosed as bi polar. It was only after she started having serious issues relating to her medication, (basically caused some serious health problems) that someone decided she was autistic

Autism is more prevalent in males. I absolutely believe that many women (specifically late diagnosed adults) are being given a diagnosis of autism and it is complete nonsense.

but there's also a possibility that its a neurotype that is more prevalent in boys.

Obviously people who need a diagnosis should be diagnosed, but many medical conditions aren’t split equally between men and women.

I absolutely hear what you’re saying re masking in women etc, and it’s great that increased awareness has led to more diagnosis and support for women.
We don’t necessarily need to think that unless diagnoses are split 50:50 there’s something wrong though.

Historically, about one female was diagnosed with autism for every four males (a 4:1 ratio), though some older clinical subgroups reported ratios as high as 10:1 or 15:1!!!Before updates to diagnostic frameworks (such as the shift toward recognising the female autism phenotype)many women and girls were left undiagnosed or misdiagnosed because diagnostic criteria were modelled primarily on externalized behaviors typical in young boys. Masking and camouflaging allowed many females to hide social differences.Co-occurring conditions like anxiety, depression, eating disorders, or borderline personality disorder frequently led to misdiagnoses.

You may think this is ok, that women and girls should be shut out and those that were missed should just continue to be misdiagnosed or ignored however the vast majority in the field thankfully don’t.

‘Wider autism community’ in this context means loud online activists.

You links provide no evidence to rebut Uta Frith’s claims and merely repeat the position held by those without profound autistim that it is somehow better not to break up the single category because it might impact access to resources.

What does that have to do with Uta Frith?That was 8 years ago and they’re still a well respected charity. The points they make re Uta Frith are what the majority of researchers, clinicians and the wider autism community believe alongside the fact that Uta Frith is bewilderingly out of touch. Maybe focus on the points they make instead of trying to deflect. You either think women and girls present differently and have a right to diagnosis or you don’t.

This was a NAS school:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-42974755

It doesn’t sound like you are very familiar with NAS then.

Pretty certain she’s very familiar with the research, far more than most are.