Interesting New Article

[Wilhelm]

I took the test, and I scored a 34. (34 & up = Autism likely)

Shouldn't my parents have noticed if I had autism?

[Vincent E.S.]

@Vincent - I believe it's important for people to research every aspect before turning to transition.  Articles like this hold theories they might want to consider.  Obviously transphobia and ignorant language aside.  Like I said above even if you are autistic, that doesn't mean you are not trans.

Agreed. Isn't that why we're supposed to go to gender therapists before, during, and after transition?
The problem is that some people won't acknowledge that and will just turn to one possibility.

And I, being my overly analytical self, always want to know the background beind everything, including my own transsexuality. I'm interested in nearly every theory behind it, though so far there's no way to prove any of them.

[mimpi]

Squirrel698, thanks for posting the article, interesting but imo fatally flawed and very tendentious to say the least.

Can't help but notice that "the team" includes two jokers from Charing Cross, London leading me to assume that anything written is probably a load of old b*ll*cks!

10 on the Autism Test, what was the "fascinated by dates" question about, the ones we go on or the ones we eat?

[NathanW]

On one of the test I got 127 out of 200. O_o;

[420NEKO]

For the first test, I scored 21. On the 2nd, it says I got 71 out of 200, then 128 out of 200 for neurotypical... So I guess I'm not autistic. But I am VERY socially awkward. 

[Hayzer12]

LOL I scored a 6...

I'm getting the results back from my MMPI next week, so we'll see what that has to say. Also, I read about this a long time ago(I'm a biology student, and I tend to keep up to date with studies); in Madrid they did research on FTM brains and discovered that their white brain matter was almost identical to a males, and almost opposite of females. They want to use a study like this in identifying transgender patients before puberty, so that they can delay it(puberty) so transition is easier later in life.

[Tay]

I took the test, and I scored a 34. (34 & up = Autism likely)

Shouldn't my parents have noticed if I had autism?

^This... I score 43.

[Adio]

Just found time to retake the test I posted.

Your Aspie score: 84 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 126 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical

Confirmed what I already knew.  I'm just socially awkward because I haven't had a lot of good interactions with other people.  Or at least other people my own age.  With older adults, I do well.  But with kids and twenties/thirties, not so much.

[Kareil]

So why didn't the transwomen show the same tendency

That's the interesting question.

Is it, really?

If Asperger's is an "extreme male brain" according to some...then transmen *should* be likely to score higher on autistic traits than cis-women, if they have male brains, being men.  And higher than transwomen, who have female brains, being women.  Transwomen, theoretically, should score lower on autistic traits than cis-men.

If anything, it should *support* someone being trans, rather than attempt to exclude it!

And this is without even getting into things that may be environment-related, like the social structure of girls transmen may have been expected to fit in with as children being different from that of boys transwomen had to fit in with.  Female aggression is different from male aggression.

[anibioman]

i actually have an autistic ftm friend. because he is autistic no one really takes him seriously. if i knew more about Autism i think i would better understand the meaning of this article. turns out my AQ results are just bellow the asperger syndrome and high functioning autistic mark. however i feel like i wasnt always this way, when i was little i wouldnt have answered the questions the way i did. im pretty sure im not really borderline autistic i think this is a result of my growing up the way i did.

[Nygeel]

The idea of autism being an extreme male brain is purdy damn problematic. I know...maybe 5 AMAB trans people with aspergers or some form of autism.

[Kohitsu]

I scored 35 on one of the tests. Now that I think about it, I do have a lot of the symptoms. I wonder why I never noticed it before. 

[lexical]

This article bothered me as well. There's an overwhelming lack of research on trans health and other issues that would actually help improves the lives of trans people. The fact that this is the research people are pursuing in this area is just ridiculous to me.

[nogoodnik]

As others have said, Simon Baron-Cohen has some extremely problematic ideas. He may be the ~leading autism researcher~ these days but most of my autistic friends have huge issues with him.

There's even a tumblr devoted to his persistent ass-hattery:
http://fyprivilegedenyingsbc.tumblr.com/

That said... I probably have Aspergers. I've strongly considered getting a formal diagnosis in the past, but when I contacted the national Autism group here they said that things are so underfunded that anyone older than a child would have to wait three years or more, and end up paying thousands of dollars. And then there aren't any benefits or legal protections for anything in place, so it would be useless. I think I'd rather save my money for transition, thanks.

Plus, online friends who are trans guys and on the austism spectrum have said it can really harm their chances of getting taken seriously for transition... partly BECAUSE of things like S B-C's ideas. They're told they're not really trans, they're "just" autistic, so suck it up and deal with your female body. It's ridiculous.

I can't be bothered taking those tests again, but I remember that I took them years ago. On the first one I scored 40+, and the other one I think I scored ~170+/200 aspie score and <30 neurotypical score, something like that. Apparently a couple of child psychologists who saw me as a child also thought I had some form of autism, but my mother rejected it because her little "girl" was perfect and kept it a secret from me for almost twenty years. I'm quite bitter about that.