So I recently got diagnosed with autism, and my therapist was talking about how it was most likely missed because of how different the disorder can show itself in boys vs girls.
So, why?
It looks like it’s the same over different populations, so I don’t think it’s anything to do with culture or anything like that. So is it something biological? Maybe it interacts with chromosomes or something?
I keep seeing things that tell me that it’s different, but nothing about why.
In: Biology
Humans have a cocktail of hormone soup inside them. There are over 50 different hormones each with different functions
The cocktail of hormone soup will vary a lot between each person because of their lifestyle, health issues, genetics, and the sex chromosomes we have
A person with XX chromosomes will usually have a hormone soup that heavily features “female” hormones likes oestrogen and progesterone. A person with XY will usually have a “male” hormone soup that heavily features testosterone. (I say usually because there are exceptions. Every human has all the sex hormones, but the ratio varies based on a few factors not just chromosomes
These sex based hormones have a big influence on the way our brains and bodies develop. They create physical differences in our brains. These differences could have a role in why autistic people of different sexes display different traits
Then there is the added later of gender. Girls are almost always raised to comply to certain norms and are punished/rewarded for certain behaviours. Boys are almost always raised to comply to other norms and are punished/rewarded for certain behaviours
Combine all these factors together and differences may appear
I could also go into the history of autism research and such but that’s a story for another day
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