Does sex influence the diagnostic evaluation of autism spectrum disorder in adults?

Only adults being assessed for autism for the first time were included, so the findings may not apply to people diagnosed in childhood. Many participants did not have formal IQ testing, and analyses of symptom profiles excluded suspected or confirmed intellectual disability. The assessments were completed in one day, so some alternative conditions, such as attachment or personality disorder, were not fully assessed. The study did not measure true community prevalence or whether women are underdiagnosed; it only compared adults who reached a specialist clinic. The authors could not rule out that women have different, rather than fewer, repetitive interests, because the tools measure symptoms already included in the diagnosis.

The work was supported by the UK Medical Research Council, the EU Autism Imaging Study network, and the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. The supplied text does not report author conflicts of interest.

Do not read these results as proof that autism tests are biased against women or that women are underdiagnosed. The study only compared adults referred to one specialist clinic, and it did not measure how often autism exists in the general population.