5.7% of Dad and mom Say Their Baby with Autism Struggles with Gender Id, Survey Finds
Recent studies have shown that people on the autism spectrum are more likely to be affected by gender dysphoria than their neurotypical peers. A new survey by an autism publication found similar results.
Autism Parenting Magazine recently sent out a survey of more than 160,000 of its subscribers around the world to find out how gender identity and autism can intersect. These subscribers are primarily parents of children in the spectrum. When asked if their child had gender identity problems, 5.7% answered yes.
APM notes that the DSM-5 estimates that gender dysphoria affects 0.005-0.014% of men assigned at birth and 0.002-0.003% of women. As a result, the survey numbers suggest it is more common in people with autism.
Of those respondents who said they had gender identity issues with their child, half said it was obvious when their child was 10 years or older, and around a third said it was before the age of 5 Years ago, while the rest said it started between 5 and 10. As for preferred pronouns, 17.6% use the neutral term “she” and 59.6% use “he” or she, although only 17.6% use the pronoun assigned to them at birth. The rest of the parents gave different answers, with many saying their child was non-verbal.
When it came to hormones, 4.5% said they used puberty blockers and 20% were willing to consider doing so in the future. Interestingly, 34.8% also said they knew other families with children on the spectrum who had gender identity issues.
APM spoke to some psychiatrists to better understand this obvious link. There were a few different opinions.
Emily Ansell Elfer, editor of the magazine, says, “The reasons for this are controversial. Some experts believe that people are naturally more nuanced on the spectrum, while others say this is due to increased media coverage through gender fluidity. ”
To read the thoughts of these experts and for more results from the survey, you can read APM’s article here.
