{"id":161369,"date":"2024-04-02T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/?p=161369"},"modified":"2024-12-10T17:16:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T23:16:48","slug":"autism-in-adult-women-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/health\/autism-in-adult-women-diagnosis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gap In Diagnosing Autism In Girls And Women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mar\u00eda<\/strong> did not like being touched as a baby. She allowed only her parents to hold her, and she would cry and cling tightly to her mother\u2019s arms when people tried to get close to her. People said she was a \u201cvery spoiled\u201d little girl. During her school years, although she was a quieter and calmer child than the other children, she also asked for precise instructions for daily classroom activities. This led her teachers to claim that this made her \u201cproactive.\u201d Some time later, at the age of 22, she began to scratch the walls of her room. Her mother, alarmed, rushed her to the hospital. She had her first contact with mental health<\/strong> specialists at that age, when she was already an adult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years passed since that episode \u2013and treatments for depression, anxiety, and nervous colitis\u2013 to finally find the diagnosis that would change her life: Autism Spectrum Disorder<\/a><\/strong> (ASD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe diagnosis gave me lots and lots of answers: like why it was so difficult for me to go out to parties and family gatherings or why I asked such specific questions\u201d, says Mar\u00eda G\u00f3mez, now 30, in an interview with TecScience<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar\u00eda is not the only one. Since 2020, women with autism<\/a> have begun to open up and discuss their condition and the underdiagnosis of ASD in girls and women<\/strong> and the possible effect of gender bias on early detection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, until a few years ago, specialized organizations stated that there is one woman to every four men living with ASD<\/strong>. This gap has become narrower over a short period of time, and now it is estimated that the proportion is one girl or woman with autism to every 3.2 boys or men, according to Confederaci\u00f3n Autismo Espa\u00f1a<\/a> (Autism Confederation Spain).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, a 2014 study<\/a> by researchers Nicole Kreisel and Susan White from the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech points out that gender is a particularly important difference in the treatment of ASD in women<\/strong> who face particularly difficult social challenges, such as violence in their personal relationships and risk of sexual violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mar\u00eda\u2019s case, for example, she was sexually abused by a man in her family from the age of 4 to the age of 22. Her difficulty in expressing her feelings and emotions made it more difficult to detect and end the abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAutism<\/strong> made it more complicated because it\u2019s already difficult to identify and express what you feel when you grow up with sexual abuse \u2013 as in my case. I\u2019m still learning what my emotions<\/strong> are\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not that she does not feel the emotions, but she does not know how to identify and classify them because of her condition. \u201cI know that abuse isn\u2019t a positive thing under any circumstance, but it\u2019s more difficult when you have a condition\u201d, says Mar\u00eda G\u00f3mez, who wasn\u2019t able to disclose the experience to her family until she was 30 years old, shortly after her niece was born, whom she wants to protect from the person who harmed her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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