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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ส.ค. 2019
- There's a lot we don't understand about autism spectrum disorder, but this week scientists announced that they may have found a link between the disorder and elevated hormone levels.
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Girls dont have fewer autistic traits, they have *different* autistic traits and tend to be much better at social mimicry than boys are. Autistic girls tend to present with a lot of anxiety, emotional sensitivity and sensory processing sensitivity which are all overlooked very often.
Exactly!!! 😭
Girls don't have different autistic traits, they just cope differently because of their socialization
A large part of autism is decreased social mimicry, by saying girls are better at it than boys you're almost implying they have less autistic traits...
We'd also expect low functioning autism (the type that doesn't present with coping mechanism from the individual, like ever) to be equal diagnosed between boys & girls if this was the whole story. But it doesn't.
@@ThighErda Seems like Fenn was pretty clear about the differences in what traits are present for autistic boys vs girls, and you're just simplifying to make it seem like they contradicted themselves.
@@j3ffn4v4rr0 They literally did say "tend to be much better at social mimicry than boys are"
That part they mentioned there... That's what I'm responding to.
Hi, apparently rare female Autist here. It ain't hard for autism to be more common in men when almost all research has male only samples or barely any female test subjects. I almost didn't get diagnosed because I wasn't male-acting enough, when I really do have autism no doubt. In my experience we female autists don't have less "symptoms" we just show them differently. Which leads to us getting missdiagnose often.
Cerene I agree. I am getting into college and was almost refused disability services due to my childhood diagnosis being “too old”. (But it’s chronic???) and they want me to be the-evaluated. Obviously, this worries me, due to now that I’m 21 years old I have learned to mask my symptoms to appear more socially acceptable, and I can’t just revert back to when my symptoms were the most prevalent since that’s now how your brain works... I am worried they might do this to make it so (if I can even find a qualified medical professional to do this, which is proving To be nearly impossible somehow..) that once I am evaluated, as they don’t have access to my old records from my pediatrician since I’ve moved from my childhood town, that they would base their diagnosis upon how I introduce myself or something, and say that I am not showing enough outward symptoms, and I’m worried about denial of crucial disability accommodation that would allow me to attend college (I have no records left of my 504 plan in school before this.)
@@L1ttlef0ot Not sure what country you're from so I'm not sure if I can help you cause that sounds like either your school is trying to "talk" itself out of responsibility or your healthcare system is wack!
Cerene i am in America (Pacific Northwest)
Yes it’s wack because they diagnose these things during childhood, then say it’s invalid once I’m an adult when my whole life I was under the impression I would not have to jump through many hoops to possibly not even get the accommodation I need. The school said they will leave my case open for accommodation on the condition that I do find someone to prove my disability soon, but the problem is, they did not have any professional’s names or anything to suggest to me. This sounds really strange to me but ok.....
Side note I’ve looked all around my area and every person I find says oh I can help you! Then it turns out they think I mean for a mental evaluation, as in for depression etc. not for diagnosing mental disabilities. Then All im told is basically ‘oh sorry I don’t know where you should go for this, your primary care provider?’ Which won’t work because I have a weird situation with that as the PCP listed on my insurance I never even visited before and the only doctor with knowledge of my disability and history with me was my pediatrician, with the last documentation from when I was like 10 years old. She has since moved to a different company of clinics and cannot divulge info about me anymore. So I tell them that they always say ‘well that sucks I don’t know what to tell you’
It’s seriously frustrating and kind of demoralizing hence why I’m ranting to a stranger about it, but it may be mildly related to this video I guess
"Fewer autistic traits"
Fewer of those that have been extensively studied. And women are better at masking
Dutchik better at most things... lol...
Yup, which always makes me wonder if autism affects more men or if it equally affects both genders, just that a lot more women can mask it and just come off as "quiet" or "quirky".
@@couturestalker8606 Haha wanna arm wrestle?
@@catief1031 Nobody (parents, teachers) has ever suspected that I might have any mental issues really, everyone just sees me as a very quiet, shy girl, but the more I look into it the more it seems like autism. Heavy social anxiety in the least. Most likely also had a depression as a teen. Now I'm 28. For girls nobody really bats an eye if they're quiet since it's a traditional female trait. But there could be a lot of things behind it.
On the other hand my brother had trouble in school and was a very active child and his teachers thought he needs meds or therapy. Didn't have any. In the end he's grown up much better functioning socially and overall than me - the responsible, quiet A student, even though everyone was worried about him.
Sorry for the outburst :D Just meant to say there's definitely issues in girl diagnosis and general attitude. It's like as long as the child isn't hyper, scary weird or doing exceptionally bad in school they're fine (aka as long as they're managable). But that's usually not how these things manifest in girls.
At least it's nice that it's slowly changing.
@@Evija3000 I feel you and I'm glad its changing as well. My earlier comment came about because I was irked about the ratio given in the video.
A lot of what you've described echos with me. The idea of me possibly being autistic didn't come about until college after my mom saw some traits for Asperger's and thought of me. Closest to a formal diagnosis I have is my therapist agreeing it's very likely who's helping me with anxiety and such.
I really think women get way under diagnosed. I am realizing that my “weirdness” is ASD. I wish they did more research on women/girls. My whole life I couldn’t understand what was wrong. I couldn’t figure out why I felt so different, stupid, and frustrated. I remembered burning out in school when things got to tough. Never knowing the right tone to say something to someone. Forgetting things, counting things, and stimming. ASD is life on hard mode as is, not fully understanding who you are with ASD is a whole ‘nother level. We need more research!
the reason that girls don't get dignosed as much as boys is because the diagnostic criteria for autism have been based on observations of boys, and therefore may not fully capture the presentation of autism in girls. I find it quite annoying that instead of doing more observations of girls to figure this out, the subject seems to be a bit ignored, so now that new studies around autism are done they continue using boys only because it's easier for them... but how is this going to give us acurate results when they continue ignoring half of the population in their studies?? But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, becuse modern medicine has historically been biased against women...
I'm a male who is most likely an undiagnosed Aspie. I've always wondered about the differences between men and women with autism. I still believe that it's more common in men for a few reasons, like men being more susceptible to atypical genetic stuff, but I know that I could be proven wrong with how little we still know. In my (very small) high school senior class, the ratio of boys probably on the spectrum to girls was exactly 3-1, but I found that it was much harder to tell if the girls I only suspected of having it actually did or not compared to the boys. There was still probably more boys, but the true ratio was likely closer to 2-1
I had a similar experience. I spent years wondering why I had so much trouble connecting with and communicating with others, and getting bullied and fired at job after job. Eventually I realized I must have autism, but it took another five or ten years to get a formal diagnosis - which I had to fight for, believe me! Hang in there, Andrea.
I feel ya girl!! I always wondered how other people managed to leave things on shelves etc not straightened or how people just * got * things. I thought they tried harder than me 🙄 cue burn out. I diagnosed myself from a TH-cam video!! Then lucky was in New Zealand at the time where they take mental health seriously
I don’t know why I didn’t get diagnosed earlier. I showed all kinds of common symptoms of autism except that I could make eye contact, speak early and read early and I made good grades. I think maybe I didn’t get diagnosed because as a child and teen I always had friends and really it’s only because I was lucky to find enough adhd girls who liked me!
... I’m autistic and female. It took me until 37 to get a diagnosis, despite some pretty strange behaviours. I’m pretty sure that under diagnosis is still a big issue for women. The socialisation of girls makes us hide our distress (autistic behaviours) more successfully. I’d love to see a study on autistic women and mental distress levels. We often get diagnosed with anxiety, not autism... if a doctor will take our distress seriously at all :/ took me a decade and four doctors just for the anxiety diagnosis.
This happened with me too, but they kept having issues with meds on me "not working." Then my son was diagnosed and going through the process is what led me to seek a diagnosis.
Also, most of the process of getting assessed so you can receive a clinical designation of 'autistic' comes down to active attempts to distress a patient or measuring distress in a patient, so autistics who *aren't* stressed (for whatever reason) may fly under the radar completely.
@@Nina9er Yes. Getting told it's weird how high your dose needs to be is kinda common, from personal experience. -.-
@@The_Letter_M Also because women are socialized differently than men, when we show traits, they are different its because of how we are treated
@@BelindaShort Yes. It is impossible to separate nature from nurture. So gendered 'different presentation' often has a lot to do with nurture that remains unexplored.
A lady died and went to heaven, upon seeing God she says “there is something I always wanted to know.“
“Ok, ask away” God said.
“Do vaccines cause autism?” She asked.
“The truth is no, vaccines have nothing to do with autism” God admitted.
The women shakes her head and says “They got to you too, this thing really goes high up.”
Good God one.😁
Sebastian Elytron -Moronic anti-Vaxxers who endanger their kids wont go to Heaven.
And then God sends her to hell.
God:"to hell you go. We aint dealing with another measels outbreak here."
r1too -No thanks. I refuse to entertain your anti-health propaganda.
I was born female and wasn’t diagnosed until I was older because I was too “normal” acting. My symptoms weren’t “less” they were just “different”.
you are a woman
Born female and still female
@@d_all_in you huffin too much copium for your own good there, homie
@@d_all_incope
I too wasn’t diagnosed until 18 and only because I needed a diagnosis that contradicted my medical barring for the military. Needless to say I am and will always be a civilian.
It would be interesting to see an updated version of this video acknowledging that girls were underdiagnosed and research taking this into account.
They weren't tho lmao 🤣 there's definitely was data then on women and there's more now to back this than ever before
Also it's much harder to diagnose females then males. Most of their stems are very "feminine" like hair twirling, pen chewing, etc. They are just able to "blend in" better (fortunately? Unfortunately? )
@@Xandycane unfortunately women are better at masking than men. The only reason i ever saught out taking the steps to get a diagnosis was because i took a test for shits and giggles and my drs were like "hmmm"
@@trixiebewitched And that's why I never wanted to get tested. At my age, it would literally change nothing. If I am, cool. If not, cool.
My mom's side is full of autistic traits, some which I have. But I already know I think differently than most. Always have. *shrugs* A diagnosis won't change anything.
Well it really seems like there is a gap, even when acknowledging the behavioural differences. This gap is still as large as 1:3 or 1:2.
Male autism is often more visible because the symptomes where study meanly in boys, sexism also affect the diagnosis ( female autism is often confuse with anxiety, depression or TDAH) and girls start masking a lot sooner than boys, which make diagnose difficult. Its also why its so difficult to be diagnose as an adult, autism dont show the same way in a 4 yo boy and a 26 yo men who learned to mask
TDAH in English is ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
Yep. If you're having trouble fitting in with neurotypicals, then that could trigger increased anxiety and depression.
@@jesuisledoughboy Just looked it up. Trastorno por Déficit de Atención e Hiperactividad. Would've been helpful if I saw your reply first, but my contribution is that it's Spanish!
I'm autistic and female and have had lots of autistic afab friends
Its not less common, its that there is a bias towards looking for it in boys and not girls.
I was VERY OBVIOUSLY autistic from a young age but no one cared about my oddities as much as they did with my oldest brother who is also autistic. His was noticed but mine and my sister's weren't figured out until we were adults looking into it ourselves
So I truly doubt it has anything to do with estrogen or testosterone
We are invisible…
Hope you get better.
I feel like that's not really enough to go on about determining population rates. In this video they said that even correcting for misdiagnosis and overlooked diagnosis, you would statistically expect a 3x ratio of male vs. female autism. I don't know the study they drew it from, but I don't think you can rule anything out until looking further at the data
@@MrCmon113 this is not the right response to autism related posts, you say "Hope you get a diagnosis" not be blind and talk about It like It is something that can fade away like "Hope you get better" imagine If you told me you werent autistic and i Said "Hope you get better"? It is the same thing!
@@destructorzz7197 Correcting for misdiagnosis and lack of diagnosis still requires underlying assumptions about rates. Considering autism research that includes girls and women is still severely lacking and getting a diagnosis for girls without an intellectual disability is still really hard, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the assumptions they use to get the statistically expected ratio aren't actually correct. Maybe there still is a gender bias, and knowing that would be important for directing research into the physiology of autism, but we need to confront the bias in research study design and medical practice to get enough good quality data to make the proper conclusions.
I've been undiagnosed ADHD for 39 years and it devastated my life... I wouldn't trust diagnosis statistics too much
Female autistic person here, my autistic traits are mostly internal. The most obvious trait that I have is my social awkwardness and lack of understanding non-verbal body language. I have other traits, but they are less obvious. Autistic Women and girls are often less studied and are also often overlooked or dismissed during diagnosis.
I’d like to see that female fetus study. The thing that concerns me is that female kids are underdiagnosed with Autism, and then miss out on early O.T and P.T and speech pathology many schools offer. Maybe autism occurs more often in male individuals, but I don’t want the doctors diagnosing my future kid to be influenced by that stat.
As the father of a daughter with autism I can tell you that girls are often misdiagnosed and later in life. Often only when they attended school. Unfortunately girl don't receive early intervention.
I agree that more research needs to be done on girls. If anything the history of medicine shows us that the sexes and more similar than different once you get past the many layers of sexism.
yeah you are right it's not that there isn't femals on the spectrum it's just underdiagnosed. Very often it gets diagnosed later as well. People are not that anowledged about the autism stectrum in general, and what they usually know are usually closer to how the males on the spectrum are that the females. Females in general are also better at copying others and what they do, which make it harder for people to see when someone are on the spectrum, as well as other things that make it so that people don't always think that they are on the spectrum. Also a lot of the time the female kid does not think much of it or are even all that aware that they are copying people to fit in as best as they can try. I myself have Aspergers and are a female and I was diagnosed a little later, not as late as some might get diagnosed but not as early as boys usually probably gets diagnosed. I also get kinda tired when people say that they are more males on the spectrum cause it's pretty clear to me that there are just a lot of females who just gets diagnosed later or sometimes not even get diagnosed at all. When I got diagnosed I learned a lot about why females get diagnosed later and such as well. Also for me I also have several siblings on the spectrum which made it so that I knew more about it and said myself that I wanted to diagnosed and got to learna lot more about it and about myself. Also I feel saying females have less traits as they said is just uncorrect. It's different from person to person what traites you have and how strong the different traits you have and what you struggle with.
My brother was diagnosed as at 5. My sibling (a year older than him and assigned female) was diagnosed as an adult.
meg143562 I’m an autistic female. We are not less likely to be autistic. We are less likely to be diagnosed.
My dad is autistic, and so was his mother. My mom has a hormone disorder (that I also inherited) so her hormone levels in pregnancy could have been weird. And I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which has been shown to be associated with increased rates of autism. So which of these three things made me autistic? There's no way to know, but I do know that it wasn't a vaccine that did it.
Alana Muir you need to start readig about Mendelian Genetics
Alana Muir I am an autistic mother of three autistic kids. 2 of us are genetically female, and 2 are genetically male. 1 has gender dysphoria. 2 of us have EDS. 3 asthma/eczema. And I also have CRPS. These various diagnoses are often found in clusters... I reckon they are actually superpowers, for which the purpose is yet to be discovered...
Same, at least on my mother's side, though there was never any official diagnosis. I also have Kallman's syndrome, a disorder that actually impacts hormone production to the point of delaying or even stopping puberty.
I also have a reduced sense of smell due to it, which goes nicely with the usual asperger's quirks.:P
So it could be genetic, or perhaps its not the total amount of estrogen but rather the ratio of testosterone to estrogen that effects the development of autism.
@@ZombieBarioth reduced sense of smell is related to ASD/asperger? I has no idea... Then again, my sense of smell sucks mire due to allergies than anything, though i do have pretty sensitive taatebuds.
@@alanamuir bien envoyé ! 😁😁😁
I'm autistic and my sister is too, I don't think it's necessarily less prevalent in females, and more that their brain plasticity allows them to hide it better in most situations. You know how women typically have an easier time adapting to their environment and stuff, I think that applies to masking autistic traits also.
The prevalence of autism is so much lower in females 👀 This is why it has taken 26 years for me to figure myself out, despite having very stereotypical symptoms as a child and countless struggles growing up... I remember being so painfully jealous that the boy with Asperger's in my class was allowed to read in the classroom during lunch. I begged for the same accommodations and was told they were not an option for me.
It´s time we got over this bias. Goddammit.
Aww! I wish you could have too!
That's just like... If any kid wants to read in a classroom during lunch they should be allowed.
I think we gotta make an effort to socialise our kids, autists too, but each person is going need their own right amount. Sometimes a kid wanna just read at lunch, why not?
More like the diagnosis rate is much lower. For women, they just get deemed more chatty or shy.
I would have given ANYTHING to just be left alone to read in school! I watch Young Sheldon and there's an episode where he finds a secret hole in the wall in the library to learn what he wants to instead of going to class and I'M SO JEALOUS.
It would be interesting to see if the correlation exists with the boy from boy/girl twin sets, given that both babies are exposed to higher levels of hormones overall 🤔
That is an interesting thought. Twins, in general, have always facinated me, so this is something else to think about.
I wonder if studies could be done on this without collecting any new data? There have already been a lot of studies on twins with autism to estimate heritability. Maybe the same data could be used to look into hormones.
One of my family friends has a set of opposite gender twins. The boy has severe autism, and the girl has severe ADHD. I’d love to see the correlation as well to see what may or may not have happened during gestation
@UCA4rO7iLETt3E7S1037YmHA Agreed, twins are fascinating case studies in nature vs nurture and unconscious bias. 🙈 Anecdotally, there is already a behavior difference between B/G twin boys and singleton boys (more chill) and the girls are seen as more boisterous than singletons. (I know those are stereotypes for gendered behavior, but let's agree they're stereotypes for a reason) Also, there's anecdotal evidence that if the boy is "baby B" he is more prone to complications. I want this study to happen and see if any of these things are connected! 😂
@Adria the two are highly comorbid so very interesting indeed
As someone with Asperger’s, it’s fascinating to learn the science behind it
But asberger's isn't autism! It's... oh.
Nevermind.
As a fellow aspergian, are your ring fingers longer than your index fingers?
@@MrMctasticsi've got aspergers too and yes they are
TheSwoleBroscientist are you being serious?
Yeah same
I am a woman who is seeking an autism diagnosis as an adult. It would explain so much of my struggles from childhood into adulthood. I needed speech therapy to get me talking, I've always had special interests with animals and reading, I've always gotten on better with animals than people, and so many more things that have just seemed to compound as I’ve gotten older. There is so much underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis for women in quite a few ways. I really hope researchers are taking note of the lack of literature surrounding female prevalence of previously though "male disorders". It's so hard, spending your entire life feeling like you're different and abnormal from most other people but are continually told by medical professionals that "you're just experiencing anxiety or depression".
as an autistic person, I'm always so nervous when channels I like mention autism because it's usually rude, insulting and hurtful but this was a great, informative video
I actually like watching those hatful videos because of how funny and ridiculous they are. Normies apparently think us Autistics are spawns of the devil or something and that we need to be eradicated.
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv the ones who think that are called antivaxxers.
I am also posting this in the regular comment sections to get more replies because i am genuinely interested.
@@mattg7772 Because preventing Autism would lead to high functioning individuals like me being aborted over the fear my Autism may be severe. I honestly don't see a test coming out that can detect wether a fetus will be high or low functioning Autistic.
@@mattg7772 Because we are people, wiping out any group of people is a bad thing period.
I have ID twin girls where only one has autism. So, same womb environment, same genes, same upbringing environment. There's a lot we still don't know about why/how autism develops!
If one of them had to be on antibiotics or had some gut disease very shortly after being born, that might have contributed through messing up their ability to absorb important nutrients. I doubt it ever could be the sole reason, but it definitely could contribute. The other twin might even be (but likely ain't) a very high functioning autist to the point where they don't realize it. There are so many different genes associated with possible autism that we don't know all the ways things can go differently and cause autism yet. Plus there's even weird stuff like chimeras being more common than we think so (bloody unlikely but) in freak cases it could even be some non-identical twin genes lurking in the affected twin but unlike normal actually disrupting the child's normal body. But this is just a fraction of possible causes, I hope no matter if science ever can tell why one and not the other has it that the kid will live a happy life
has there been studies into plastics??? ive heard that plastics get into our blood and increase hormone level i could be completely wrong but im sure i heard that somewhere
Environment is never the same. Twins don't eat the exact same food and quantity, treated the same by parents, peers and strangers and spent every second together. Epigenetics show that different genes can be turned off or on depending on very small variations.
@@robpolaris5002 i highly doubt ppl are getting autism because they had an extra ice cream sandwich at the age of 2. Autism and for that matter early puberty is caused hormone increasing substances like plastic and pollution...
@@jordangerm That is liberal theory, Not science. Of course pollution is bad. But it was much worse during the industrial revolution, so that is definitely not the only factor. We don't know what it is yet. To say its this or that is just random guessing.
Thank you for reporting on this. Quick note: Folks often refer to autistic people as if they are all children, for example "autism appears more in boys than in girls." which was also the way you put it in the video. I know it's tricky to find the right wording, because autistic traits do begin to become apparent in early childhood. However, autistic adults often face huge problems because they are not generally recognized by society as existing, much less as social identity. Scishow writers are just about the best version of humans you could ask for, so maybe you can consider changing the wording a little next time to help dispel the myth that autistic people disappear once they reach adulthood. Actually, it would be flipping awesome if scishow or scishow psych could delve more into neurodiversity, or even the new research into the correlation between autism and a higher incidence of being transgender and/or gender nonconforming. Thanks! You're awesome.
Yes! This! And yeah the entire video I was like ... what about trans people! every autistic person I know (myself included) is trans
@@uhpkkim Umm ... but I know at least one (me) who isn´t.
Not denying the (high!) correlation, just ... not everybody.
@@CL-go2ji 👍 it's cool that you aren't. I wasn't trying to say that all autistic people are trans. I actually said every autistic person *that I know* is trans. Which isn't even true anymore because I just found out like literally 2 days ago that my queer cis friend recently found out that she's autistic.
@@uhpkkim Honestly, I probably felt like I should say what I did because the correlation between spectrum "disorders" and lgbtq+ness is so high. So I totaly see what you mean - I´m almost an exception.😀
@@CL-go2ji *queerness
As someone on the spectrum myself, it annoys me how a lot of people associate being different with being inferior.
Sure, I can't stand noise, parties, bright lights, social events. I don't care about most of the topics that people discuss on a daily basis. But I'm learning japanese as my third language by 25 years old, I'm having one of the highest grades in my class, I have a lot of fun playing demanding games like Devil May Cry 5, I study electronics/history and programming on my spare time.
I am very bad in most of the things that neurotypical adults usually see as a routines in their lives. If I were to go to a party, I would have no idea how to approach and talk to people. But in my workplace people are usually very happy with how polite I am with them, and how fast I try to solve problems without trying to look like the "strong" guy or the "smart" guy.
What I want to say is, if your child doesn't like sports, if they don't want to go into social events full of people they don't care about, if they grow up and doesn't enjoy going to parties, that's not your problem. Just worry about them finding a decent career that they enjoy. They will find their own hobbies as they grow. Just don't let them grow unemployed.
Aspie guy here. I just wanted to let you know that I agree with what you said. I also want to compliment your profile picture and user name; that had laughing out loud. 😁
I've gotta agree, I have ADHD, which has some overlap with autism. and in my opinion I wouldn't be half the person I am now if i wasn't ND. sure id like a cure for my depression/anxiety, but my Adhd? I'd be a very different person, my hyperfixations have made me so much more knowledgeable.
I‘m not diagnosed to be on the spectrum but nonetheless, my parents keep pushing me to go out to parties and socialize and get a hobby involving sports (cuz dance doesn’t count apparently) cuz that’s what teens are supposed to do, and I’m just SO FRUSTRATED like I know what I’m doing just stop please
@@TamaraTkacova In order to avoid doing these social things parents force us to do agaisn't our interest, we can pick other things that are more socially acceptable. One of the reason I'm an intern and doing a lot of courses on my spare time.
"Go to Parties? Sorry, I have to work.", "Do sports? Sorry, I'm studying japanese and doing extracurricular courses right now." .
They can't force us to stop working/studying in order to go to parties because it will make them look bad. Plus we get to do and learn something we really want for ourselves.
@@queergeologist8207 100% this comment! My ADHD allows me to multitask at work like a BOSS. I'm not employed anymore in the traditional sense (I'm a freelance artist) but it still allows me to hyperfocus on what I'm doing & finish stuff in record time. Seeing patterns & solving puzzles that other people can't seem to figure out is pretty fun, and sometimes super useful too lol Best of luck!
I find that Autism studies like this help me better understand myself and how my brain ticks every year. Thanks as always for your well-presented, thoughtfully done videos.
No-way I found Phantomstrider by randomly scrolling through comments! keep up the good work man!
@@H3XED_OwO Aw thank you hexed 🙂 Always a nice surprise to bump into a viewer outside the channel
Both of my children are on the spectrum. My son is considered high functioning cognitively, but severe in social interaction. My daughter is on the lower end of the scale and has recently started gaining words. They both show very different symptoms, even in when they first started showing symptoms. My son was normal in development until he was around 3 then regressed, while his sister showed so early that her pedi thought she may be blind and deaf as an infant. There's a saying, if you've met one person with autism, you've met ONE person with autism. It's a spectrum, and each person is different. Thank you for uploading new information, it's nice to hear something besides the completely wrong "Oh they were fine until they had vaccinations".
That is definitely true. People with autism are just as different from each other as the rest of us are.
Im rather High functioning and my brother is affected a bit more then i am.
@0 0
Pretty low tier troll bud.
@0 0
Use google bud.
@0 0
Interesting considering you didnt put two after saying "seriously" and you used none when you said "what's Autism". Then there is the matter of your name and lack of profile pic, typically a sign of a burner account. Then the easily googled question of yours laid out akin to bait.
Everything I've read on this study is more studies need to be done.
That's every study tbf, working in academia is basically having low funds for a bigger study and always concluding "more research needs to be done" hoping that you can pass the torch towards someone else.
Which is also why science is evidence based, we conclude things based on evidence that doesn't mean studies show the 'truth' but if done correctly they incline us to believe that is how things work, you can never be conclusive in the sense that more research always has to be done even if just to be sure.
That's how studies work. They find something to study via a preliminary study like this one, and then do more studies to break it down to the brass tacks.
That’s the scientific method, being able to replicate the results of a study.
My poor daughter, as a gifted student, became a de facto instructor in most of her classes, and instead of getting quality teaching, she was responsible for the success or failure of the same kids whom the teachers failed to help.
Getting her out of general ed and into advanced courses saved her sanity and ambition.
She benefitted from having 2 parents in the home who cared about her success and prioritized making time to be home to help her in her studies.
Yeah my sister was super high IQ gifted. These kids need to be in special classes. They're doing away with them and it angers me because it's literally a psychological stressor for these kids to be mainstreamed. They get bored, disruptive, then get in trouble - this happened with my sis. I'm not stupid, lol, but I'm not like her.
@@objectivityisourfriend9631 I was also in gifted classes, and I quit them because they were basically just more work without any real advanced teaching (at one school, at another it was actually great). Once I was in the general population of classes, I also got disruptive, bored, and in lots of trouble. in 2 years, I went from an A student in all honors classes to nearly dropping out and deciding I didn't want to go to college.
There are fewer autistic girls/women because we use social masking as a way to survive since for boys they can do whatever they want. I used to stim when I was a kid among other autistic traits but I was told my parents and relatives to stop because it was not something that girls should be doing. We feel more pressure to socialize so we mimic other girls' behaviors. Tony Attwood has some great talks about it.
exactly, and yet so many people are completely ignorant to this or even worse, IGNORE IT!!
I have autism. Most people would underestimate how much autistics there are in medical school. Although, they are all high functioning.
Dr Din With your grammar I really hope you aren't an actual doctor.
Adam Haynes with your attitude I really hope you don’t have kids.
Jake X Thank you for taking the time out of your life to reply to me. Hope you also learn to make proper sentences just like the original poster.
It's easy to assume high functioning looking in as an outsider. I have no autistic diagnosis personally but I'd trust an autistic carer ,nurse , doctor or surgeon etc..all day long!! In my opinion where is the cure or explanation for the supposed normal person who gets average in everything and blends in so perfectly with society...Autism is a gift of greatness. I do not believe there has been one single person from the dawn of mankind that will live (or has lived) with 100% fully functioning perfect brain. Whether it be mild vision, hearing loss, forgetfulness to full on walking around an empty car park wielding a hammer at the sky shouting at aliens. Nobody ever has been or ever will be perfectly functioning all their life or in every way.. it's what you make of what you've got that COUNTS .
daniel sonhud "Autism is a gift of greatness." I hope we all someday get the gift of Autism.
This is fascinating, especially considering the comorbidity autism has with ADHD and how you also posted a video about how estrogen might affect that diagnosis.
God, I love how much we're learning about the brain - I wonder if within 20 years we'll end up having _completely_ rewritten that section in the DSM.
I wonder what I'm gonna have to change the name of my diagnosis to when the DSM6 comes out :P
A while ago I went to see a specialist. The doctor was relatively old. He pointed to a medical textbook on one of his shelves, and told me that this book was being used when he studied medicine, and how almost everything written in it is now obsolete. I love science
@@limiv5272 I love that doctor! Not all working doctors retain the idea that CURRENT medicine is important when they have been out of school for 30 (20, 10) years.
Maybe they’ll remove the D from ASD! Hopefully they completely rename ADHD XD it’s about as accurate as naming cars “moving windows.”
@@LimegreenSnowstorm Some folks call it being "polyennic" (many thoughts), which is a reference to the associative cognition component. And I've seen others identify with "attention hyperactive", in reference to the interaction between monotropic thinking and associative cognition.
Autistic will likely be characterized by bottom up processing, neuronal sensitivity, and monotropic thinking.
ADHD / Polyennic will likely be characterized by associative cognition, monotropic thinking, neuronal sensitivity, and possible time perception deviance.
I am both female and on the spectrum. I also have an incredibly high level of both literacy and verbal fluency. The way you describe default mode network in the beginning middle of this piece is worded in such a convoluted way, using double negatives, that I actually paused in the middle of it to ask Google to define the fault mode network because you were just confusing me
This was just recommended to me in 2023...SciShow, you need to do the right thing and acknowledge where you got things wrong.
As an autistic person I do love hearing about the science
That's a common theme with us,
We love learning more about everything
YOU LOOK WELL!!!!
Ask your mom if she took birth control, that's my theory (estrogen pills)
Raven Falcon As a not autistic person, I do love seeing how vegetables type.
Dan are you ready to start another unfounded bulshit, kareen?
I would appreciate if you don’t call your dumb brain dumps theories
Estradiol is found in contraceptives. Wonder about contraceptive withdrawl time before pregnancy.
U h
That is a really good point and observation.
This should be the top-rated comment. A researcher should look into that ASAP.
That was the first thing that I thought of, especially then there seems to be an apparent increase in autism, (is that correct?)
Katie Kane I need to know about this..I don’t care that they say it imitates your natural hormone perfectly..I feel the difference when switching between generic brands that are labeled to be the same. It freaks me out that I take this pill everyday 😖
I wasn't diagnosed until i was 48! Back when I was a kid I never heard of autism. Didn't know what it was. But now looking back I think my mother had it too. She had all the symptoms as well. But we never knew why we never fit in.
To be honest: I'm not a fan of making too much fuss out of a single publication before other groups of researchers repeat the experiment
I came straight to the comments after reading the title.
Me too
Looking for antivaxxers too?
This does prove why all women are autistic
@@firstname4304 i'm only autistic when it comes to my kitchen cabinets. If my husband unloaded the dishwasher, i go full on autistic rant because my favorite coffee cup is an inch from where it should be.
@@DrCatdeJong But that's understandable tho. Try to get my wife to understand stuff like that.
Normal people: Wow, what a fascinating video. Thanks.
Anti-vaxxer: Wait, estrogen is a vaccine???
@SuperSocks slurp
Rather ironic considering their belief in immunization, no?
You can't catch measils, but you can autism, who knew?:P
@Wade Haden If you rewrite that to say increased estrogen I won't vaccinate my baby.
@Wade Haden
Are you dense?
Lowering testosterone doesnt increase estrogen. That's not how that works.
Also, this is talking about the presence of excess estrogen whilst the fetus is still in the womb, before vaccination would ever happen. Meaning, a child's brain is autistic by the time they're born so your dumbfucku theory is bunk.
@@supersocks4097 heck, there's even that theory going around that ASD and other psychological disorders may be the first steps(presumably wrong steps, but steps nonetheless) in the evolution of the human race, after all, how would we be able to figure out when humans will start to evolve from homo sapiens sapiens to whatever's next if it's such a slow process?
But that's almost tin hat levels of theory even if the question behind it is interesting, so whatever, i guess as long as people are socially functional, it doesn't matter too much.
@SuperSocks slurp it might be because society sometimes does treat those of us on the spectrum like we're the plague.
Yeah, I’d love to see a study including women. Things like adhd and autism are under diagnosed in women. It’s not that it’s not there, but women are taught to mask their issues and not kick up a fuss. But they still figured out that I, as a female, had adhd as a child.
I’m female and I’m autistic. I was diagnosed at 9 years old because I could barely get through school. I’m nearly 30 now, and it’s very rare for people to guess that I’m autistic from interacting with me.
I have been analyzing my own behaviors and tendencies since I was young and I’ve developed many strategies to avoid meltdowns. I’ve also noticed a lower amount of expressive gestures and facial expressions so I started to imitate others in that area. I’ve had a lot more success in communicating with my colleagues by watching them emote and implementing those movements into my own communication.
I really like that you state the findings with the right amount of caution 👏
Thank you!
@@SciShow u suck
Confirmed being alive causes individuality.
vaccines cause adulthood.
😂
Vaccines lead to furrydom.
I trust that y’all are doing your research but we’ve learned A LOT abt autism in the past couple years. I’d love to see a more inclusive updated version soon. Some info in this video is like spoiled milk now
I certainly turned my nose up at the pathological use of “person with autism”
The opening statistics are way old when it comes to autism being male dominant, there's a huge swathe of female autistics out here who are diagnosed, later in life diagnosed, and completely undiagnosed. They used to only study male autistics who would act out of the "normal" parameters of societal expectations and would only study them because they were obvious and stood out of the norm. The Australian study that brought up the different aspects of female presenting autism which has proven that there are way different symptoms and survival instincts involved when dealing with female and male versions of autism.
As someone who has Autism, this new development in research is rather fascinating. If this evidence continues to yield results, then hopefully treatments and therapy can be even more helpful to someone like me.
I also have Autism and my biggest worry about research like this is that they will develop a prenatal test like we have for Down Syndrome and everyone will be aborting Autistic fetuses even if they don't know where on the spectrum they will be. This is why despite being quite liberal on drugs and same sex marriage I am HEAVILY against abortion because I would have been one of the aborted fetuses if such a test existed despite me growing up and functioning well in society.
I doubt finding the reason for autism is going to lead to better treatments. Your brain is literally wired different, changing connections on the cellular level is the stuff of sci-fi, and will probably remain that way for a very long time
Aspie here chiming in. I agree that there is nothing wrong with being "wired differently". However, that also comes with a lot of drawbacks that negatively impacts functionality in society and quality of life. Although it is still sci-fi to us, I would support genetic engineering to rectify conditions such as Down's syndrome, ADHD and autism.
@@alephnulI I'm still skeptical they'd find a treatment that causes a significant improvement any time soon, but I'd be delighted to discover I'm wrong (:
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv It sounds like you have a sense of security in your life and in yourself, that you value your life. Not everybody would have chosen to be alive.
I'm a woman with autism, and I've always had iffy ongoings with my menstruation and other hormone related things. I wonder if this Estrogen and Autism link have something to do with that as well! I hope I will be able to hear the answers and see the results of studies on women with autism before I die.
Mood. This had me looking up the link between autism and progesterone since I recently learned (through folk remedies that work, like reducing animal product consumption and drinking chasteberry) that I seem to have low progesterone
I was thinking the same thing! I'm a female autist, and I have PCOS. PCOS covers a lot of ground, hormone-wise (none of it "normal"). Thinking about the other ASD women I know, I think there's a greater incidence of this among us than is typical in the general population. I have so many questions now!
YES! I'm diagnosed PCOS, with one of the key diagnostic criteria in my case being high androgen levels for someone AFAB. Currently going through the process of trying to get assessed for ASD as an adult (having been through various diagnoses of OCD, depression, GAD, etc.), and this does seem to fit the bill in my case
I like that closing note "we want to understand it not cure it" because people treat it like it's a curse
I think I’d be really interesting to remake a video on a correlation between nurodivergence and lgbtq+ since I’m an autistic lesbian and many of my friends on the spectrum are also Lgbtq+
This would be fascinating.
Please, yes, this! And what about autism and intersex? This video has me wondering now.
There's been some very interesting research on autism and gender nonconformity lately, might be worth looking into 😊
I have seen discussions on this very topic. Because us people with ASD are less bound to social norms, they are less likely to dismiss the possibility of being different from the norm.
I have autism im a girl and im allways haveing problems with my estrogen and progesterone levels i have an endercpnoligist as well though its moslty for my hosomotosthiroiditis a thyroid conditions which is also known to mess with hormorns but its something to think about
Okay I hope you get better
@@polandball999 thanks I'll be fine i have really good doctors and all my imediate familly members have some health problem so they all know what to do so im in good hands
@@marlarose3105 okay
Symptoms
neurocosmopolitanism.com/throw-away-the-masters-tools-liberating-ourselves-from-the-pathology-paradigm/
What I learned today: I have super manly brain
Not only that, it's created by a super-feminine hormone! (not really but yeah)
I would insist they they change the puzzle piece logo to a superman S for autism awareness. Its science.
Yeah. And it's extremely unsexy. Sorry...
😂 Good one!
@@rafaelsantana4905 I think he can live with not being sexy for you, Rafael... 😅
Would love to see in-video citations so that I can know which source to read for more information. Tom Scott has started doing this in his videos, and it's really helpful
We have them listed in the description. We'll check out Tom's videos to see what you mean. Sounds awesome.
@@SciShow It would also be nice if the sources had labels and super short annotations. When I see the links on mobile, I don't have any idea where they lead to.
The most recent autism research suggests that when we account for the amount of females that are likely undiagnosed, the ratio changes from the popularly quoted 4:1 to 3:4… meaning that there are actually more autistic females. :)
Being that I have autism myself I enjoyed this video especially when they said the scentist are trying to under stand not prevent there is nothing wrong with me my brain its just wired difrent
^THIS
I always get jumpy around studies on Autism because too many people see a better understanding as a way to prevent us from happening, which I object to, strongly. I love the idea of understanding, either for its own pure scientific merit, or to help Autistic people in better ways than throwing us on the trash heap of society. For example it would be good to have a test if it were used right, to determine which kids should be examined automatically for Autism, and which only if they show strong traits. Understanding is never bad, it is only the way it is used that can be bad
@@susanwilliams2392
Im always afraid research will lead to them trying to prevent people with ASD like Iceland did with Down Syndrome people.
www.cbsnews.com/news/down-syndrome-iceland/
Thank you!
I feel that way too but the occmed doctor and copper mine think differently.
💗🕊
These are some super helpful and we’ll put together studies! We needed this very badly! Heck yeah, science!!
As an autistic woman who has high testosterone levels and polycystic ovaries, this information makes so much sense.
I don't look butch or anything like that (I am very curvy), but I am naturally very hairy and my voice is deep and low pitch.
Thanks!! This gives me new leads on my own health investigation. I inow there ia a correlation between polycystic ovaries and insulin resistance, so I was suspecting of a hormone, but I never found about estrogen being a big issue there, untill now.
I am going to say that this study is definitely overlooking female people with ASD. It is definitely way under focused, and as others have said, that since society tends to think women are shy or demure, that it is easier to mask than with what are assume typically cismale gender roles. Still an interesting study, but I hope they update it or have follow ups in the future.
Interesting findings, also, guess it goes without saying, love your kids and treat them with dignity and empathy always.
Then why say it
captindo Hell no.
@@SoulDelSol because some people don't do this, unfortunately
@@fwgking3428 Dont have kids then. Problem solved.
I can say the same for adults in the workplace.
SciShow, you should do an episode about the Bradford-Hill criteria for demonstrating causation. Often people hear "correlation doesn't imply causation" and think that's the end of it, but in the field of medicine it's almost never possible to prove causal factors directly (you can't for example give babies autism). You could go through which criteria this study does well in and which it leaves room for further studies.
My kid and I share a partial deletion of a certain gene, which is the root cause of his autism. I have suspected for many years that I also have a certain atypical nature when it comes to my brain, although I have no paperwork to suggest as much, except the genetic test results. Either way, I feel happy. He and I are so similar, and I am so proud of him, just for being who he is.
If you don't mind my asking, which gene is partially deleted? What's its normal function and what effects (other than autism) have arisen from its partial deletion? I'm really curious! It's rare people can pinpoint a genetic cause of autism.
@@TheRABIDdude well, root cause might have been a bit flippant. The 15Q gene? I think? Its got implications regards certain developmental things, apparently.
So cool! I love hearing about research like this that revisits data and looks for possible causes that were overlooked the first time. And this one in particular is super fascinating! Thank you Sci Show!
Great, now we're gonna have Anti-Hormoners!
Unfortunately, this is already a thing.
Soooo... the Church, basically.
Well, call me a proud mentally ill guy! I'm not dead from an easily preventable disease! Although there will be anti-hormoners killing me.
dont we already have those lol
we already have those, they're called terfs. now we're just gonna have more of them
Thanks guys. I love learning more about my autism and what might cause it!
Fun fact: autism isn't ACTUALLY more likely in boys than girls, nor do girl have, "fewer autistic traits," rather the same traits are more likely to get punished/corrected in girls, also the same traits tend to manifest differently. Special interests are more likely to be considered, "normal," for a girl to like, such as dolls, horses, a movie or celebrity, those obsessive interests are waved away as her being a very emotional person, which girls are expected to be.
I'm happy to hear the, "want to understand autism, not prevent it," we don't need to be fixed or prevented. We aren't an illness or a curse. We're people. Just a different kind of people.
Would love to see an updated video on this. Women are VASTLY overlooked and under-studied when it comes to Autism (not to mention many other conditions).
I love that they point out causation doesnt mean correlation
Wait, what? 😅
Backwards, but I don't hate it. 🙃
@@normanclatcher Yeah I don't think it works like that
Sucks that you can't cure ignorance with the facts.
You can cure ignorance with facts, just not stupidity.
If facts aren't the reason you believe in something, then facts won't be the reason you stop.
@@filonin2 agreed
@filonin2
Or without an open mind. Not everybody who argues in the face of facts are stupid, often times they just feel like they or their world view are being attacked.
Many people have a natural immunity.
Great video. As a newly diagnosed autistic female, with an autistic teenage daughter and being a scientist, I suspected that oestrogen may have a role to play, not only developmentally, but also during menarche and menopause in autistic presentation. Thank you cc
Is there a transcript for this video? I have SPD and videos are not always accessible because I am easily overloaded.
in my younger years i was diagnosed and treated as(for) autistic, but more recently doctors changed their mind and removed the diagnosis, i know my brain functions different than others but i dont see myself as autistic. this video made me realise that autism is not just a psychological thing as in the way the brain thinks but also physical in the way the brain developed, so while i might have had a childhood that somehow shaped me into exibiting autistic symptoms the fact that i have further developed (i no longer by any means could be considered autistic, even if i do exibit some symptoms, who doesn't?) means i was never autistic, just misunderstood. although i am open to discussion and if i said something that doesn't make sense i would actually _like_ to discuss it
Extremely interested in this. Always wondered about my hormones. This makes sense.
I have mild autism as a female and I have had weird hormone issues my entire life. I have more DHEA than normal and always have. I have no clue if that contributes to it, but idk, they should research that too for females and see if high amounts of DHEA contribute to it or anything.
Autism isn't actually less common in girls, it's just underdiagnosed because the most commonly known symptoms are those associated with how boys typically present. Girls are also much better at masking autistic traits without realizing it, meaning they fly under the radar
I'm a woman (former girl). I was diagnosed with Autism at 4 years old. I presented very much with the classic Autism presentation that is more common with boys - getting overstimulated and responding with aggressive outbursts; screaming, throwing stuff, that kind of thing... I think my first school was scared of me. Anyway, that school expelled me after the first year and I was sent instead to a brilliant special school that taught me how to cope with life without hurting anyone. I was completely non-violent by age 11. I definitely never did any masking. I say what I want, be who I am, I don't care what people think of me, and I don't believe in getting embarrassed. I have Pathologic Demand Avoidance Syndrome, so I think that explains a lot of the ways I might be different to other Autistic people.
As an autistic women who has been told by doctors that I had higher levels of estrogen hormones during my early life and teen development, this feels like it makes so much sense to me. But I also had a doctor look me in the eye and deny that i could have autism because I was a girl. 🤷♀️
My mother, a Special Educational Needs teacher, told me the same, as she was taught that the 'Autism is an Extreme Male Brain' guff when she was studying back in the 70s and 80s
SURPRISE, MUM! 😂
I thought that endometriosis may have something to do with it. I was told by my gyno that oestrogen and testosterone levels tend to mirror one another in a natural cycle so if one is high so is the other etc. Also the gene variant can impact oestrogen metabolism in terms of poor clearance rate which may further exacerbate endometriosis. Plus endometriomas produce their own oestrogen. So you have the ovaries, adrenals and endometriomas raising oestrogen levels excessively high.
Ya i have high testosterone levels as a man, i feel ya. Granted ive chosen this but sure there are pros and cons of diff hormone levels and ratios
I'm not an expert in this, so don't put too much weight into my thoughts: but the placenta is a huge player in the hormone game. It changes things for Mom and baby, so it's possible any preexisting hormonal condition doesn't have as much effect as the health and functioning of the placenta.
@@cynthiab3168 both my mother also autistic are both progesterone intolerant and hypersensitive to the point of extreme pmdd. I was put on progesterone desensitisation therapy to reduce this responsiveness but instead of reducing it. I became even more hypersensitive to it. Also have issues with testosterone to a lesser degree. Oestrogen has had amazing mental benefits and reduction of androgenic effects. On high dose androgenic progesterone, I noticed a mass reduction in my Autistic traits as my testosterone levels were significantly reduced. In regards to the placenta, what is defined as "normal"? It's interesting to see pcos and other androgenic conditions present in Autistic women. My gyno said one of the causes of the excess testosterone was the lack of oestrogen to bind to the circulating free testosterone. So curious to see what they find next.
@@cynthiab3168 plus many women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder are Autistic and some do or don't know it because of poor recognition of Autism due to social masking common in girls. So underdiagnosis of both. Pmdd because of lack of research and many misconceptions in women's health. Particularly in PMDD, what works for most does not apply to all. The variation in response goes as far as diversity within PMDD. So what treats one may not work for others or make them worse. Unfortunately, I was one of the ones who in theory should have been better on a progesterone only device such as the mirena... of 9 months on it I was in and out of hospital for 6 months. Gyno said it would fix my very extreme pms but it made it even worse. Said the desensitisation should get a little worse and then better. The longer exposed the worse I got. Each woman needs to be monitored down to the point of working out their hypersensitives and hyposensitives to progesterone, oestrogen and testosterone. You can have more than one type and hypersensitivity can be either dysphoric or euphoric. In postnatal psychosis, women have oestrogen levels that spike causing both serotonin and/or dopamine receptors to become highly sensitive and overstimulated. Too much oestrogen = hypomania, Mania and or psychosis. Postnal depression is generally caused by the opposite an oestrogen deficiency hence psychiatrists in mother baby units found oestrogen replacement resolved the hormone related depression. When oestrogen is low the serotonin and/or dopamine receptor becomes desensitised resulting in depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances (hypersomnia and/or insomnia) and symptoms of low dopamine such as concentration issues, working memory issues (e.g. forget something they just read or loose their train of thought when doing a longer mental math exercise), memory retrieval from long term memory (can't find or remember) etc. Plus menopause-like symptoms.
My mom had endometriosis when she had me, I'm also on the spectrum. The same thing happened to my oldest half-brother but he's an Aspie. I ALSO have incredibly painful cycles. And being on the depo shot made me realize that I couldn't take my regular medication for depression/anxiety. Made me have HORRIBLE stomach issues similar to IBS. I do not recommend the shot to any female on the spectrum. Try CBD and chug it once a month along with a special tens unit.
great video very informative, thank you
warning: when studies say "women have more autistic traits than men" what they mean is "Most autistic women have autistic traits which present in ways which are less obvious to researchers through external observation in laboratory settings." My autistic traits are all moderate-to-severe in intensity and I have A LOT of them. Socialization, IQ, and expectations of women all play a role in why we appear to be "less" autistic. That's not how this works. It's just how neurotypical researchers pretend it works.
That said, this is a well-balanced, fair video with sound information and a lot of the right questions highlighted. As an austistic person used to having to listen only to autistic-made videos on autism to protect my mental health, this was refreshing.
I was relieved when you said the researchers weren’t interested in screening.
Well, could be a marker rather than the cause
Even if that's the case, it'd mean they're looking in the right place
Isn’t that literally what he says at the end?
He said that.
It seems a lot of these issues seemed to explode in increasing frequency after the mass production and use of birth control.
It's basically concentrated estrogen, and there's no real long term studies being done about the subtle effects it could have to the placenta later on, or natural hormone regulation. It wouldn't shock me that most autism cases are from women who has taken birth control continuously for a long time, or drinking lots of city tap water with a poor filtration process, since you urinate the excess estrogen introduced by birth control, and water treatment facilities are mostly only screening for bacteria, viruses, microorganisms, and heavy metals, not harder to filter things like hormones.
So, I have a medical condition where I don't process estradiol correctly. I also have autism, and I'm transmasculine, meaning that I probably have what people describe as a masculine brain structure, and I think it's really interesting how so much of what you said kind of correlates with all of that and explains very heavily my experiences with these things correlated and my experiences with parenting an autistic child. I'm pretty sure that the connection between low amounts of estradiol during pregnancy, like what myself and other people in my family deal with because of our "allergy"/inability to process these hormones, and autism spectrum disorder is actually probably completely true. The type of estradiol resistance issues that I deal with, which my mother and her three sisters and my grandmother also have all dealt with, directly correlates to the members of my family that have diagnosed autism spectrum disorder. My mother, one aunt, my grandmother, two cousins, myself and my oldest child are all autistic. My mom, grandma, all 3 of my aunts, and myself are all carriers of this specific type of hormonal condition. We also almost all have ehlers-danlos syndrome, and there've been studies showing that people with ehlers-danlos syndrome and other collagen disorders often have children who are autistic as well or are often autistic themselves. someone should probably study the connection between then connective tissue allowing these hormones to permeate in different ways how that actually affects the growth of the human brain during pregnancy. If people can figure that out they can probably figure out why certain people in our society naturally become autistic.
I Don't Exist, thank you for sharing this fascinating comment! Yours is one of the most informative, eye opening comments I have ever read in a TH-cam section.
I doubt this is how it works, but I hope you will present yourself at some institute of research/higher learning and be the opportunity for huge discovery!
May you happen to a prepared mind!!
I think they need to broaden the scope and check the hormone levels in females... Because there have been other studies that have found that autistics are more biologically androgynous, that is to say that the males have lower testosterone and higher estrogen levels, they have smaller frames (they primarily measured shoulder width and cranium size), and the females were the opposite; higher testosterone lower estrogen, broader shoulders and larger cranium.
So if the males have the higher estrogen levels in the womb... I'm curious as to what the females have. Is this REALLY an extreme male brain thing? Or is it actually androgyny and people are instead fixating on the idea of extreme male brain crap?
Also does this have anything to do with the fact that autistics are SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to be trans?
These are all questions that need to be addressed and if done will broaden our understanding of autism, but won't be if we go into it with preconceived notions and biases.
We really need to research the trans thing more, I have met a lot of transsexual women (male-to-female) that are autistic as well.
I am a trans girl with autism, and have been thinking about this as well.
Eeeeenteresting. I certainly fit that generalization. Rather than thinking of myself as failing at being feminine, I believe I will think myself successful at being more androgynous. ^^ I don't research/read about autism much, but the gender angle is very interesting.
I’m an autistic male with strongly masculine secondary sex characteristics and normal testosterone levels for a man my age.
I don’t agree that autistic people are more likely to be trans than allistic people. I believe that autistic trans people are more likely to be out than allistic trans people, because autistic people tend to care a lot less about societal norms and are thus more likely to accept a part of themselves that doesn’t exactly align with the majority.
@@jesuisledoughboyMaybe there are different types of it one characterized by more feminine features one by more masculine features and one by more pronounced feminine & masculine features depending on the hormone levels I don’t know if i have it but for example i have broad shoulders, defined facial features, low bf, but also broad hips, small waist, long eyelashes and full lips (just an idea)
Hi, im autistic and writing/researching on the very topic. The fact that autism is more prevalent in boys is getting questioned more and more. Recent research has attributed the historically male prevalence of autism diagnosis' to the fact that it was simply white, upper middle class boys that were the target of the most scrutiny when it came to "problematic" behavior. Sadly enough, the same "problematic" behavior wasn't seen as problematic in girls and non white boys, which is why they weren't studied and diagnosed as much. Luckily this backwards way of thinking has shifted and more and more diverse people are getting access to correct diagnoses' and help. As well as more diverse sample groups are participating in studies regarding autism. I'm sure that as we learn more about autism over time we'll see that it is spread pretty much equally across the sexes.
I have autism & extremely LOW estrogen that's only now being diagnosed as a 35 yr old AFAB person. I've had the weirdest hormone fluctuations throughout my life that have wreaked havoc on my mental health. If you are an autistic woman who has experienced any issues with PMDD, anxiety, dryness, or issues with sleep, please get your hormone levels checked. I'm pissed that it took my doctors DECADES to even do this.
People underestimate those who have autism. Autistic people are so much brighter than many people judge them
Let's say someone got pregnant while on birth control. Like they where on it, but forgot some doses. But their hormones are still affected by the birth control.
Edit; I'm was just spit balling, don't quit your birth control over an internet comment. Looking further into it birth defect aren't caused by birth control in an epidemiological study. Although, birth defects probably wouldn't include autism that would appear years later. It would be interesting to use the same data set of people and ask them if their child has Autism. Here's some other things though. Autism seems to be mostly genetic concluded by another recent study. Also, I'm unsure how much the birth control pills can effect the fetus through the amniotic barrier.
I have a cousin who was conceived while his mother was on birth control and he developed autism so this would seem to me to be a worthwhile study.
I was also conceived on while my mother used bc, and I am on the spectrum
I did a relevant reply on a diff comment so I'll just paste it here "The fact that it's high estradiol possibly causing asd makes me think people who don't know they're pregnant are more likely to have babies with autism cause estradiol is in so so many birth control pills (and the ones it's not in still have other estrogens or at least progesterone, it's what makes it work) so I wonder how this could ripple into birth control and detection the industry for it (spoken from someone with asd)" I think my mom knew pretty early with me but I'm also afab, I did have placental problems tho so maybe that has something to do with my cause
I highly doubt that this is genetic since it has been unheard of in my day.
"Birth defect aren't caused by birth control in an epidemiological study"
Do you think Big Pharma would allow the publishing of a study stating the opposite ?
I was a bit nervous about how this video would present all this, but was very relieved when it consistently avoided sexist, transphobic, and ableist pitfalls. Good video!
Very useful info!
I don't have Autism. I AM Autistic.
Fascinating video.
"Studies consistently show that men and women are more psychologically similar than they are different"
Actually, while sex differences in personality were believed to be small Del Giudice et al (2012) showed the differences to be extremely large, placing personality differences between sexes larger than the categories of differences in aggression and vocational interests of the sexes.
On the big five personality trait, women to have higher levels of neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness that men across most nations (Schmitt et al. 2009).
As levels of human development increase, such as a healthy lifestyle and an equal opportunity, increases the levels of sexual dimorphism in personality traits of men and women as there are less constrained by environment and therefore can naturally diverge in these developed nations, while in less fortunate conditions, these innate personality differences can be attenuated.
How interesting! Thanks for sharing
Another AFAB autistic person here. I went undiagnosed because just like for many female-raised people there was immense pressure to NOT act out (unlike with boys, whose problems are listened to), to minimise my struggles and to instead provide free emotional labour for others.
Since I couldn't understand what I was doing wrong, I masked heavily and tried to just be as invisible as possible.
Needless to say it was incredibly traumatizing enduring high school at a conservative all-girls school where the expectation was to become incredibly nurturing to others, to be incredibly social and pick up on social cues from all ages and genders WITHOUT them having to say anything and to know what the right thing was to do.
The emotional outbursts aimed at me from parents, teachers and peers when I said or did the wrong thing are trauma I'm still trying to process now in my 30s.
This is why so many autistic people hate bad media depictions of us played by neurotypical actors - autistic people very often learn NOT to act out or to say things that might be considered rude, we compensate heavily for what we don't know and study miniscule societal rules and are often shocked and distressed by the abuse and extreme emotions we encounter from neurotypicals.
Please society, stop misrepresenting us as unrealistic caricatures and cast actually autistic actors. Sam from Atypical was so obviously not actually autistic it was depressing.
The parts where he was saying the "got-this-from-an-actual -autistic-person-in-the-show's-research parts, like in his big essay at the end of S1 stood out and didn't merge with the actor's and show's interpretation of what that must mean which actually autistic people DID get (including multiple actual autistic people in the show's writing and creative direction as 2ell as autistic main actor playing the autistic lead would have helped with this), and even in season 4 they were still showing the puzzle piece logo of that hate group Autism Speaks on the supportive mother's phone lock screen.
Just, do better, entertainment industry, talk to actual ASAN networks of autistic SELF-activism not misinformed carers and the hate group we all know is a hate group. Thank you.
I have autism and a hormone syndrome known as klifelter's syndrome which is XXY chromosome so this is very interesting as far as a link.
I liked this video, and I know that SciShow is a great channel, however the "1 in 59 children" fact is a little frustrating as it does play into the myth that autism is a childhood disorder. Autism doesn't go away as an adult, and it can be much, much harder for adults to access specialist support and services because they're so much rarer. As an autistic adult, I would have loved to see this stat be about autistic people as a whole, and not just children. Thank you for the work you do on all your videos!
I think 1 in 59 children makes more sense to the actual rate of Autism because a lot of adults are undiagnosed.
This makes alot of sense to me!
I know this is an old video, but I'm still commenting in the hope that someone sees this and learns some critically important stuff. Also, I'm Autistic for the record.
1. We aren't "people with Autism", but Autistic people. This is the preference of >90% of Autistic people. While person first language is the standard in the US for referring to most disabilities and it's in the manuals that it's what should be used, we still don't say "people with deafness" or "people with blindness" because a supermajority of those communities don't like it. Well, a supermajority of Autistic people feel that treating an extremely fundamental part of how our brains work as alienable is very dehumanizing and only serves to further the goals of eugenicists who wish to genocide us out of existence (or as they would phrase it, "find a cure"), a belief that does already disproportionately get us murdered.
2. Speaking of genocidal eugenicists, Simon Baron-Cohen, the guy who came up with the Extreme Male Brain hypothesis, is one (he's also famous for the utter malarkey that is the idea we lack a theory of mind). His research is consistently compromised by reasoning motivated toward "finding a cure". Of particular note, as more non-male Autistic people get discovered due to a better understanding of how being socialized differently obscures us from diagnostic criteria that was only ever designed to be used on White middle class boys, Baron-Cohen now has a complementary Extreme Female Brain hypothesis rather than accepting the falsification of his pet idea as a good scientist would. Like, whether we have an "extreme male" or "extreme female" brain doesn't actually correlate very well with sex but does correlate extremely well with socioeconomic factors, he (actually, all models that try to identify gendered phenotypes) fails to account for how we disproportionately identify as nonbinary, and if he were to have actually asked Autistic people how well these hypotheses match our internal experiences before publishing, he would have been laughed out of the room.
2a. Actually, no mainstream model of Autism was made with any input from Autistic people at all. But every Autistic-created model that actually has been tested, has shown better predictive power than any mainstream model. Turns out thinking about what Autism feels like from the inside is more effective than trying to interpret behaviour through the haze of gender, race, socioeconomic, cultural, and neurological differences, who'd-a thunk?
3. That 3:1 male:non-male ratio that's so commonly quoted does not in fact account for underdiagnosis and especially not misdiagnosis. Studies have controlled for who was tested (to varying degrees), but not how the screening tests were designed nor systematic biases in how behaviours are interpreted by researchers. In particular the standard tests are much more interested in "what" than "why", even though what they're trying to test for is a condition that changes how whys are generated which then go on to inform how the whats present. Really goes to show how dehumanized we are.
Hello, I'm a "rare" autistic female. Diagnosed in my FIFTIES. We're not actually more rare, we're just more overlooked. And we have all the same traits - because you can't be diagnosed without them. SciShow, do better.
I agree. Understanding autism is definitely something that needs to happen but why no interest in trying to prevent it? That doesn't make sense to me
Because "preventing" would be aborting fetuses with Autism just like we do with Downs Syndrome fetuses. Why? Because Autism is genetic so the only way to "prevent" it is to come up with a prenatal test to screen for it like we do with Down Syndrome. Sorry but I enjoy life and my Asperger's is apart of me just like black skin is apart of black person. I am not broken and I don't need you or the government to "fix" me! This is why despite be liberal on many issues I am EXTREMELY anti abortion.
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv yes downs, autism, aspergers, etc are genetic but as gene research continues and we accumulate more and more knowledge and improve techniques like Crisper we'll soon be able to eliminate these disorders. No one was saying anything about abortion
Neurodivergergence is not a disease. Autism does not need to be cured just because some assholes find harmless mannerisms inconvenient. We want to understand it because knowledge is a good thing and will make it easier to help people thrive with their individuality intact.
Great video!
I wonder if the correlation between estrogen and autism could also be linked to the evermor increasing level of plastics in our food and water supply . Many plasticizers are weak esteogen BPA included. Although BPA levels is too weak to make an impact the many other synthetic plasticizers in our environment around us as a whole may contribute to the rise in autism.
And so could increased consumption of soy. Or undiagnosed cancers. Or birth control. Or perfectly natural differences between women. Or just by-products of the ongoing process of evolution. (not all mutations are good)
So does that mean hormonal birth control could be a factor in causing Austism? Considering all of the hormones associated with it are often in most hormonal birth controls. I'd love to see a study look into it. I'd like to see if there's a further study into why these hormones being elevated cause these changes
Could also be diet related, with soy a likely culprit. Could also be purely naturally occurring, without an external cause. Women are not carbon copies of each other, after all, so naturally occurring differences in their hormone levels can be expected.