17 - Autism and Gender Dysphoria
Gender: A Wider Lens
Sasha Ayad and Stella O'Malley
4.6 • 961 Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2021
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The startling links between ASD and Gender Dysphoria are raising plenty of questions as clinicians wonder why children on the spectrum tend to struggle with gender. Also, which comes first: ASD or gender nonconformity? In this episode, we explore how autistic traits may cause youth to question their gender and become attached to identity labels. And we wonder if this has implications for the trans movement.
Links:
Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, by Andrew Solomon
Amazon.com/Far-Tree-Parents-Children-Identity/dp/0743236726
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, by Steve Silberman
Amazon.com/NeuroTribes-Legacy-Autism-Future-Neurodiversity-eboo…
Scientific American Article: “Autism — It’s Different in Girls”
Scientificamerican.com/article/autism-it-s-different-in-girls/
13 YO girl with social struggles:
Papers:
Thrower, E., Bretherton, I., Pang, K. C., Zajac, J. D., & Cheung, A. S. (2019). Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Amongst Individuals with Gender Dysphoria: A Systematic Review. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50(3), 695–706. Doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04298-1
Hisle-Gorman, E., Landis, C. A., Susi, A., Schvey, N. A., Gorman, G. H., Nylund, C. M., & Klein, D. A. (2019). Gender Dysphoria in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. LGBT Health, 6(3), 95-100. doi:10.1089/lgbt.2018.0252
Butler G, De Graaf N, Wren B, et al
Assessment and support of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria
Archives of Disease in Childhood 2018;103:631-636.
Extended Notes
- Sasha worked with autistic children early in her career and it really shaped a lot of her training today.
- How do you define autism?
- Stella thinks girls who have autism are getting missed at a younger age compared to boys.
- How are gender and autism related?
- Some children are just getting misdiagnosed as children and it’s showing up as anxiety or depression, instead of being on the spectrum.
- Can’t figure out why a child might not be making progress? They’re on the wrong meds.
- Autistic kids in general don’t really conform to gender norms.
- Parents spend so much time with their autistic children just so they can live somewhat of a normal life. It’s painful and heartbreaking.
- It’s cute when you’re five when it comes to not picking up on the gender roles, but as you get older, it can be difficult to integrate into a normal life.
- Are there more autistic people now than there were before?
- Technology and being overly glued to it can accelerate the social deficit traits.
- Are you comfortable in your own body? A lot of times the answer is no.
- One of the signs of autism is sensory issues. Both Sasha and Stella have noticed with their gender dysphoric children that they have an overfixation on the new changes their body is giving them during puberty, and how they hate it. You don’t want to deny that children on the spectrum do have legitimate challenges, but there is a balance between blaming it on their autism...
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to gender, a wider lens. |
| 0:04.0 | I'm Stella O'Malley, a psychotherapist in Ireland. |
| 0:06.5 | And I'm Sasha Ayad, an adolescent therapist in the United States. |
| 0:10.6 | Since 2016, my practice has been exclusively dedicated to gender questioning teens |
| 0:16.1 | and families impacted by gender dysphoria. I also work with gender questioning |
| 0:20.7 | teenagers and I facilitated support meetings for families and |
| 0:24.2 | individuals who have been impacted by gender issues. We're curious about the |
| 0:28.1 | concept of gender and how it's unfolding in the wider culture. Join us as we look at gender through a wider lens. |
| 0:37.6 | Good morning, Stella. |
| 0:39.2 | Hi, Sasha, how are you? |
| 0:41.4 | I'm doing okay. How about yourself? Good. I think this forthcoming episode is something that a lot of people have an interest in because ever since I first heard of gender dysphoria in this new era in the last few years, |
| 0:56.0 | people have talked about the link between gender dysphoria and autism. |
| 1:00.0 | And for this episode, we're just going to go there and explore why, how common, you know, where's it, how does it impact the entire kind of nature of the link between autism and gender dysphoria because I think it's one that really |
| 1:14.6 | confuses people. I don't think people really see why what a funny link and yet the |
| 1:21.0 | more I work with this cohort, |
| 1:23.9 | the more I say, well, it's a very strong link. |
| 1:26.9 | And I know you're going to have a lot to offer us in this |
| 1:30.6 | because you were going to work with autism or you worked for many years with |
| 1:34.4 | autism. |
| 1:35.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:36.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:37.4 | Yeah, when I when I was in undergrad I started connecting with the work around autism through the ABA community, which is applied behavioral analysis. |
... |
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