zlacker

>>geox+(OP)
Why just the males though? Is there a hypothesis for why it only affects them?

I wonder, are we simply underdianosing the women with autism as usual?

And I wonder if there's a correlation between drinking diet sodas (as opposed to naturally sweetened?) and getting your children evaluated for autism (like, say - diet soda drinkers are on average wealthier, and that correlates with better access to healthcare and more parental involvement, thus reducing underdiagnosis of autism?)

Given how sensitive obstetrics are to even small risks and how prevalent aspartame is, I'd be surprised if there is a genuine causal link here of such strong statistical effect. I mean, how many people use zofran? And yet obstetrics we're limiting its use in pregnant women just for a very very small alleged increase in the risk of heart problems in the baby.

>>atomic+j5
4 out of 5 people diagnosed with autism are male. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_gender_differences_in_...

So, there’s a significant gender difference here, possibly with diagnosis but likely a deeper connection. Alternatively, it might impact both but this study didn’t have enough statistical power to notice the correlation.

>>Retric+W6
This is anecdotal but I strongly disagree with "likely a deeper connection." I really do think girls are just severely under diagnosed. I have several adult women and AFAB friends who all display autistic traits and, to me (an autistic man), are very obviously autistic but it's been so hard for them to get a diagnosis even when they want to. The system is really set up to diagnose young boys with rich families only. Getting diagnosed as an adult is expensive and arduous and most people in the field appear to be biased against diagnosing women. Granted, autistic traits are presented slightly differently in women due to cultural norms but I do believe they're easy to spot with practice.

>>63+wf
Wouldn’t being autistic yourself make it harder, not easier, for you to notice autism in others?

>>WendyT+Xg
Can you explain your reasoning for this? I've found that neurotypical people are pretty bad at identifying autistic people who are masking (that is after all the point of masking) whereas it's relatively easy for me to recognize it because I'm so familiar with my own mask. I'd also like to believe that I have more knowledge about autism in general than your average allistic person. They might be able to recognize that something is "off" about a person but I don't think they could reliably point out when it is or isn't autism and I think they'd have a pretty hard time justifying it if they do guess correctly. Maybe the close family members of autistic people could do well at it though.

>>63+Xr1
Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder often associated with an inability to speak, serious intellectual disability, and similar issues. The less extreme cases have dramatically more contact with the wider population introducing an odd form of social survival bias.

At the same time the term has been more widely applied over time to include people with minimal intellectual or linguistic impairment, but that doesn’t mean people with such profound issues no longer exist.

Thus, if you’re talking about the full autistic population overall they are going to on average be worse at basically any task.