Private diagnosis for ASD?

[Servalan]

My DC has just been referred by the paediatrician for ASD assessment/diagnosis. Apparently the waiting list for this is 2 years.

My DM has asked if she can help by paying for my DC to have a private diagnosis in order to cut down this wait.

I'm wondering what folks' experience of this is? My DC has mental health issues and I think an "answer" would help him in this regard, though school have an ed psych report with recommendations of how to support him for the timebeing.

Is private diagnosis recognised in the same way as NHS diagnosis?

How would I go about finding accurate and reputable diagnosis?

My DC is currently identifying FtM trans - so I would want to make sure it was someone that understands ASD in the biologically female population

Thanks for any thoughts and help

Bumping

Just bumping again

My DD was diagnosed earlier and on the NHS but didn't want to read and run. I agree that somebody who can understand and work sensitively with gender identification and how that interacts with ASC would be really useful. I know Judith Gould/The Lorna Wing Centre is the "gold standard" for Dx'ing autism in women so it's probably worth starting there if they are accessible to you.

You probably already know, but there is a high association between autism and different gender and sexuality identification (not much research yet on why) - not just transgender but agender and every sexuality you can imagine. You may find it useful to watch videos from Purple Ella, whose oldest child is autistic and I think identifying MtF, also you should also look up "Not so Neurotypical" (Rory) who is transitioning FtM (he is on Twitter as @notsont as is his Mum, as @BrightonVix). If you start to look for #actuallyautistic accounts on Twitter you will find quite a lot of transitioned or transitioning adults and will probably also get useful feedback on places to go for Dx that will be sensitive to different gender presentations.

Not really answering your question, but maybe some starting points if you don't get anything more directly helpful.

e.g. these slides mention gender identity (Judith Gould from the Lorna Wing centre - slide 12) - so it's definitely on their radar.

www.slideshare.net/Autismiliitto/judith-gould-the-diagnosis-of-women-and-girls-on-the-autism-spectrum-autismin-talvipivt-2017

Thank you so much. That's really helpful

We went via Lorna Wing, not cheap but found the whole experience as stress free....well as stress free as it can be.

I can’t answer your question about next steps as we are still waiting to see what the NHS does with it. But will be making a fuss if there is any query about it considering the Lorna Wing train lots of NHS staff on how to do the assessment.