Lack of research on females with autism and transitioning

Hi, I was wondering if the parents of a transitioning child are assessed by a psychiatrist? It states on the NHS website that family therapy or counselling support are offered, but that's not the same thing. The reason I ask is because for all the parents out there who are no doubt trying to support their kids as best they can, there are obviously going to be narcissistic and otherwise abusive parents who could use a transitioning child as a weapon in their own personal arsenal. There are a considerable number of narcs and psychopaths out there, but they're not always easy to detect.

Sorry I should have linked you to the thread myself! It was very disappointing. They have replied to me via email but they absolutely shouldn’t be linking to that organisation.

I put all this in my GRA response. I am concerned about young autistic girls struggling with this.

I did too.

In my direct experience there's more freedom to be yourself simply as you're not trying to conform to neurotypical ideals generally.

That’s a good point.

Do you know if any autistic organisations have spoken up on this issue?

Did you not read the thread on the NAS endorsing Mermaids?

I'd also be interested to know if there's any difference (if possible to quantify) between children who have been educated in autism specific settings (sen schools) and mainstream.

In my direct experience there's more freedom to be yourself simply as you're not trying to conform to neurotypical ideals generally.

If gender is socially constructed as a wealth of evidence suggests, then the main reason for gender variance would be a difference in how an individual responds to the socialisation process. Given that girls have been massively underdiagnosed I personally can see why there are a lot if self identified trans people have also self identified as autistic. The absolute disgrace is that they have been guided into a process of extreme self harm.

Also wasn't it reported that 2 thirds of girls referred to gender clinic were autistic

The exact wording was: autistic traits.

Those twitter bios... pretty sure many are self identified autistic

Interesting thread. I'd noticed the high frequency co-occurrence of those with "trans" and " autistic" in their Twitter bio. Nearly every time. Also wasn't it reported that 2 thirds of girls referred to gender clinic were autistic?

Too tired to post now but I recently diagnosed as autistic and am gender non-conforming and grew up to be bisexual and not trans.

I would've been so confused by trans ideology if growing up now and most probably would've identified as trans before my sexual orientation became apparent (early 20s).

I put all this in my GRA response. I am concerned about young autistic girls struggling with this.

Thank you for this thread, marking to read properly tomorrow.

I've never been able to articulate quite how I feel about all this, how I felt as a teen. This thread is fab.

@numptynuts I'm sorry it took you so long. How is that right? Women waiting until they're in their 40s to get an autism diagnosis, but then kids being transitioned so quickly?

To be honest there are a lot of men not diagnosed with autism until they are in their forties either. Teachers and parents didn’t know the signs twenty or thirty years ago. People didn’t understand autism as a ‘spectrum’.

If you weren’t Rain Man you were just a weird kid and they didn’t look any deeper into it.

Nowadays teachers are better trained and adults are a bit more informed. Which is why it’s so terrible that children are being pushed down the transition route instead of referred to an autism specialist first. What do they have to lose?

my own niece is autistic but not diagnosed as in another country and it was felt it was better to go down a route of dyspraxia type diagnosis to access the physio/ OT input she needed (she has some fine and gross motor difficulties as well as processing difficulties). She's very into 'girls things:' pink, flowers etc. though this came on later, as a young child she loved trains (Thomas) and the more gruesome bible stories.(very religious now, I think it gives her a social structure) She's never been able to play however - it's too complex a behaviour- and her problem solving skills (in terms of daily life) are limited. But she does reasonably well in a mainstream school; I think if she was diagnosed with asd she'd be in a special school. But I'm apprehensive for her about how she'll find being a teen. She's extremely vulnerable. Her younger sister is developing street cred and style. In many ways the fact she's so into the church is good as she has so many friends among the congregation (adults).

I've often felt she's only gender conforming because that's what girls wear if that makes sense? And her parents have to support her a lot socially. Girls have dolls so she had dolls but could only line them up and tell you when their birthday was.

I've not taught any girls with autism like her. But I only teach primary level and in a special school; I do wonder if it's different for young people with asd in mainstream settings. Social pressures are much higher and fast paced; I know that all will miss out on cues and struggle horribly - many came to the setting from mainstream around year 2.3 or 4.

Very interesting thread, thanks op.

The only child I have taught who questioned their gender was autistic. (I've taught children with asd for well over a decade.) they were extremely gender non conforming.

Interesting that someone said upthread that they're either conforming or not as besides this child, they've all be very gender conforming - to the point with one child, they refused to read a reading book that was a complex rewrite of Cinderella as it was a 'girls' book.

Whilst this researcher hasn't to my knowledge looked at transitioning, she's certainly researched a lot on gender stereotypes, brains and autism so might have covered something or be open to any questions if anyone wanted to contact her. abs yes I stole my name from here

parentingsciencegang.org.uk/web-chats/how-different-are-womens-and-mens-brains/

I got diagnosed with autism at age 46. Took 10 years to get that diagnosis.

What really pisses me off is girls with autism are now being recognised more but this is now being hijacked by the trans ideology.

I know what growing up autistic was like, how I behaved, my boy-like tendencies, late development etc etc and I've been told my experience is not relevant by some woke twat because I'm not trans. It is relevant, because I'd bet my last pound if TRAs had infiltrated my school back in the day, they'd hone in on me like no tomorrow.