Something like 1 in 4 transgender women are also autistic. If this study holds any water that might be an interesting investigation.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4396787/#!po=0.... [2] https://www.smr.jsexmed.org/article/S2050-0521(15)00004-9/pd...
I keep myself informed on transgender issues because I have transgender people near and dear to me and I have transgender colleagues at work. In my personal life many of the transgender women I know identify as on the spectrum, some more intensely than others. 1 in 4 sounds right anecdotally as well.
Anecdotally, I think it might be true that younger people in general are more receptive to identifying as autistic while people my age or older might be averse to it even with the same experiences.
As in, one circumstance is being conflated with another circumstance and this is counterproductive for everyone
Good luck finding a way to say it.
While I hate to agree with this, it is also my opinion as a transgender woman myself.
I also believe that the percentage of trans people who are also part of the spectrum and who are in online support groups is even higher than 7%.
Often, they are quirky people who have difficulty expressing their opinions, points of view and identity. They often seem rude and frustrated. They are very passionate about the subject of gender identity and will make far-fetched statements and present them as facts. This results in very embarrassing interactions.
Personally, I can't stand their quirks and I often have negative experiences with them. These users will take up all the space and drive other users away.
My favorite Facebook support group is the result of two of these "migrations". The first group was huge and became "unstable", so a few people created a second one. After a while, some of the users from the first group found the second one so a third group was created. This group is set to invitation only and has around twenty users.
Many people approach me as if I was autistic, which I am not and it is frustrating at best.
This is very taboo and most people will not talk about it. You cannot deny support to people on the spectrum, but I wish they had their own spaces.
I would bet that most of the socially awkward encounters people have with trans individuals is just that. It's people interacting with people with autism. Being transgender is about finding and expressing your gender identity. Puberty is always awkward for anyone involved at first but most people grow out of it and become adults and this is no different for a second puberty.
Being stuck in-between, unable to express one's identity in a socially acceptable way is not a symptom of gender dysphoria, it is a symptom of the autistic spectrum disorder.
If people were more aware of this, they could act accordingly. Just because someone is on the spectrum doesn't mean that they are invalid in their trans identity. It simply means that they have their own needs and require a different mindset.
I understand that this is going to come across as very controversial. It is not my goal to belittle anyone and this is merely my anecdotal point of view as someone from within those communities.
But there are plenty of symptoms of ASD that have nothing to do with stereotypical gendered behavior. And they are a requirement for diagnosis.
Personally I don't know.
People who are gender-nonconforming and/or trans, are more likely to have the main trigger event for being diagnosed with autism: being told that they seem autistic. Which will lead to more of them "being" autistic (in the medical-statistics sense, under which people who have ASD but are never diagnosed, get categorized as "neurotypical.")
I'm not saying I necessarily believe it, but it's one of the most interesting articles I've read recently.
And I'd like to have a word with whoever downvoted this.
In general, I'm specifically skeptic of claims of behavioral changes associated with HRT, as I feel as if a lot of those claims have roots in gendered preconceptions of women that have nothing to do with biological differences. People going through HRT will associate personal, unrelated, experiences with the medical transition, but cannot be corroborated through any studies or research.
The most obvious example was my response to emotional situations in fiction. Going from only being able to empathize with characters only on an intellectual level to also being able to empathize on an instinctual/emotional level was was so incredibly obvious it was like going from black and white to color.
One the one hand, you could dismiss "I cry at movies now" as just an intellectually-driven conformity with gender stereotypes. You could dismiss my self-report as rationalization--even a dishonest one. On the other hand, what we're fundamentally talking about here is my own mental states--something about which I have first hand observation and you can have only assumptions.
Go through the thought exercise of what kind of information you'd need to evaluate this kind of claim scientifically. You'll quickly realize how incredibly implausible it would be that anyone would perform (or fund!) a study like this.
Seeing as that's never going to happen, You're left with the choice of either (1) believing people's self-report as the best available evidence, or (2) requiring trans people to solve something like the "Chinese Room Argument" just to justify that their own mental states are, in fact, real. It's like asking someone to prove they actually love their spouse, and aren't just simulating that behavior. Who else is subjected to this level of burden of proof? It's totally unreasonable.
That is, I eventually learned how to process emotions 'correctly', something I was never taught as a child. This is coincident with my transition. I am unclear if it has been directly caused by HRT, but I haven't ruled it out.
However. I absolutely disagree that this is a change caused by "intellectually-driven conformity with gender stereotypes".
I do understand that these things are different for everyone and it's basically impossible to prove, but you can understand my skepticism. I definitely experienced some of the emotional elements you mention, but they aren't new to me. I don't cry or get upset now where I wouldn't have before. It does feel different though. I do not think this is the same as some of the behavioral changes that the parent is describing. My behavior hasn't changed. I'm still just as much of a nice/mean/thoughtful/forgetful/etc person that I was before. I had ADD before, I have ADD now. My political views haven't changed, I don't treat my friends differently, my hobbies haven't changed. I can't think of anything special about autism that would allow for those symptoms to change because of HRT.
Why?
The comment is essentially: "I read someone claiming something one time." It has no sources, no links to anything to explore or understand, nothing. There's not even a link to the article or story. Just someone making a wild statement on the internet.
But just pointing this out cost me -2 karma, which is -- again, anecdotally -- an example of how Hacker News is a toxic environment for marginalized folks.
I'd love to see some studies on that too.
If someone publicly asserts they're trapped in the body of the wrong sex, and does not back down when challenged, might this be sufficiently weird to be ASD by definition? Especially given the awkwardness of violating gender norms.
A comparison between ASD diagnosis rates in places where trans identity is culturally normalized might shed some light on it, but as ASD diagnosis is also pretty cultural it might be tricky.
Both sides get the same autism diagnosis since both of them are better at dealing with things than people, but they are completely different. For me I felt the diagnosis would hurt more than help since it didn't properly describe me, so I asked for a proper test and alternatives. I got ADD and social phobia, there were no signs of proper autism but I could have gotten a diagnosis from the original psychologists hunch.