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The Challenging Journey to Female Autism Diagnosis
Many autistic women are not diagnosed until adulthood, often following a series of wrong diagnoses, burnout, and sometimes suicide attempts.
The materials used to diagnose autism are biased towards male presentations of autism. This means that autistic males are far more likely to receive an autism diagnosis than autistic females.
Undiagnosed autistic females are more likely to be described as highly sensitive, shy, depressed, or diagnosed with conditions such as borderline personality disorder (BPD), bipolar disorder, and other mental health conditions.
Autism is not a mental health condition
Autism is a genetic neurodevelopmental difference. Many autistic people experience mental health conditions, either as a part of being autistic or because of the difficulties autistic people experience growing up and surviving in a world that is often hostile to autistic bodies and brains.
Why are so many autistic women not being diagnosed?
Autism scholarship is inherently biased and many healthcare practitioners are not trained to recognize autism in females.
Autistic females with average or above average intelligence (IQ) are most likely to go undiagnosed “causing them to miss crucial support that may accompany a diagnosis and alleviate some of their struggle,” writes Dori Zener, a clinical social worker in Toronto, Ontario.
A deep sense of being different
“For women with unidentified autism, anxiety comes from knowing they are different, but not knowing exactly why or how.” — Dori Zener
Perhaps the number one feature of autistic women who reach adulthood or even late adulthood without a diagnosis is an unrelenting feeling of being fundamentally different than their peers. They often describe feeling alien or incapable of being understood by others.
