Research on the overlap between autism and gender diversity—a term
used to define those who, either by nature or choice, do not conform to conventional gender-based expectations—is a relatively new field. Earlier this year,
Spectrum, a website dedicated to in-depth analyses of autism research, published an
extensive investigation that explores this relatively untrodden ground, explaining that over the past five years, there have been only a handful of studies that trace a co-occurrence between the autism and gender diversity. In one of the
first major studies, carried out in Holland, researchers examined 204 children and adolescents who identified as
gender-dysphoric—a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress due to a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity—and found a 7.8 percent prevalence of autism.
Researchers in the field have speculated about the reasons behind this co-occurrence, but the social and cultural implications of this correlation are proving problematic for trans, autistic communities. Some health-care professionals are now telling trans individuals on the autism spectrum that the need to transition is a
result of their autism—a classic misreading of causation versus correlation. And, as in Clarke’s case, the mistake appears to be limiting access to medical care.
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There are case studies of gender diversity on the autism spectrum dating back to 1996, but the first study to assess the convergence of autism and “gender dysphoria” was published just six years ago. Since this point, there have been several studies, with a watershed moment occurring for the world of autism research in 2014. John Strang, a neuropsychologist in the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at Children's National Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., assessed gender diversity in children with autism, rather than measuring the incidence of autism among gender-dysphoric children and adolescents as the previous studies had done. The study found that participants on the autism spectrum
were 7.59 times more likely to “express gender variance.”
This was a turning point in the field, but it hasn’t necessarily ensured an easy explanation for the co-occurrence between gender dysphoria and autism. The
Spectrum investigation outlines the various theories researchers have offered. One suggests that children with autism form a “fixation” with their gender identity. Since people with autism often have obsessions with particular topics, identifying as gender diverse could be seen as an “obsessive” relationship to gender, similar to the classic autistic obsessions with things like cars or dinosaurs.