Something like 1 in 4 transgender women are also autistic. If this study holds any water that might be an interesting investigation.
A lot of people with autism also have sensory issues, maybe that is a factor in dysphoria?
High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
91–100 of 190 posts
Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
#92I've had a sneaking feeling that a lot of the phyto-estrogen compounds out their were eventually going to be linked to autism. Expect to see a massive consumer wave against anything containing these compounds: fragrances and any items that contain fragrance, dyes, receipt paper, soy, both BPA and BPS in soft plastics, etc.
Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s just semantics. There are negative connotations associated with calling someone “normal” versus “abnormal”. I’m sure you’re polite enough to not describe people in wheel chairs as “abnormal”. The non-controversial terms that people use related to issues like autism are “neurotypical” and “neurodivergent”.
>It’s just semantics No it's not... I was responding to someone who said there is no "normal". Yeah, there is. Most people behave in a way you would expect. Most people exhibit motor controls the way you would expect. A minority of people, and specifically people with autism, really do think in a "different" way and exhibit strange motor functions at times that most people do not. I don't think we have to dance aroun…
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Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a trans woman, I agree this needs more study, and I have experienced something similar. And I'd like to have a word with whoever downvoted this.
What experiences did you have while on HRT that lead to you to believe this? In general, I'm specifically skeptic of claims of behavioral changes associated with HRT, as I feel as if a lot of those claims have roots in gendered preconceptions of women that have nothing to do with biological differences. People going through HRT will associate personal, unrelated, experiences with the medical transition, but cannot be…
Speaking for myself...
The most obvious example was my response to emotional situations in fiction. Going from only being able to empathize with characters only on an intellectual level to also being able to empathize on an instinctual/emotional level was was so incredibly obvious it was like going from black and white to color.
One the one hand, you could dismiss "I cry at movies now" as just an intellectually-driven conformity with gender stereotypes. You could dismiss my self-report as rationalization--even a dishonest one. On the other hand, what we're fundamentally talking about here is my own mental states--something about which I have first hand observation and you can have only assumptions.
Go through the thought exercise of what kind of information you'd need to evaluate this kind of claim scientifically. You'll quickly realize how incredibly implausible it would be that anyone would perform (or fund!) a study like this.
Seeing as that's never going to happen, You're left with the choice of either (1) believing people's self-report as the best available evidence, or (2) requiring trans people to solve something like the "Chinese Room Argument" just to justify that their own mental states are, in fact, real. It's like asking someone to prove they actually love their spouse, and aren't just simulating that behavior. Who else is subjected to this level of burden of proof? It's totally unreasonable.
Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I took a neuroscience course back in the day that discussed findings related to autism. I don't remember everything, but there was a discussion on excess dopamine early in the brain and a later depression of glutamate levels. All in all this would lead to more sparsity of neural activations in the brain. This made sense. Too much dopamine would lead to excess plasticity, causing a normal amount of glutamate to have t…
You're building a theoretical treatment based on a theory you have not validated. (I'm not aware of any reasonable validation in e.g. a model organism at least.) So, go back, and first check or devise a model. Model organism for autism is a very hard problem.
He said his comment is worthless (in a truly medical way), so I don't see the point in your comment.
Fwiw I found his comment to be interesting conjecture. I too have many dopamine related issues and until we have a better true understanding, all we can do is hypothesize and guess based on the small bits we do know.
Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Couldn't you classify what you described as early trauma - highly stressful situation? I ask because I would have been considered Asperger's as a child, however was never formally diagnosed, and I had I'd call traumatic, a few childhood experiences with severe pain. It was however a series of events in my early 20s lead me to developing a severe hypersensitivity to sound, which then through trying to problem solve, d…
Hard to clarify, and just earliest memories and maybe trauma solidified those event in memory, really hard to speculate even from personal experience. Also of note I was diagnosed officially in my late 40's, I was tested for autism when I was 5 (remember that vividly) and they deemed me 50/50, which in the 60's - autism was either yes or no with no aspergers or other half-way definitions. Interesting how you mention…
Oh, I love a walk in the snow, ideally when it is falling, nobody around.
So soothing.
I am not autistic, but do have high aural senses. As a kid, I could hear well above 20khz. Today, that has rolled off due to age, but my discrimination is still great.
Sounds can sometimes move me to distraction. ASMR, for example. I trigger easily and it is fairly intense.
There is something about the crisp air, dampening on sound that snow presents to us, and what little is heard otherwise seems to just stand right out, like incongruent, but not in a bad way. Just there, present.
Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Absolutely not. If it were anyone's decision it should be the mother's, and I even find that questionable. Autism isn't inherently bad, it's just different. There's no duty beyond screenings and providing the knowledge.
Autism is a disorder and at some levels it renders the ailed person simply useless.
As mean as this sounds to read, it's the truth. I personally know families who had an autistic child, did their best to accommodate and integrate them, but the child grew up to be nonverbal, destructive, etc.
Of course it's not always true. The poster is right that autism isn't inherently bad, just different.
Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
#98Maybe so, though equally could just be a small part in a larger puzzle or even a red herring. However, as somebody who is on the autistic spectrum, I have noted that my index and "ring finger"[edit thanks to comment] are of equal lengths, a trait more common in females than males who tend to have one longer - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_ratio Another aspect/theory from personal experience is that my earli…
if I could go back in time and become normal I don't know if this is good news, or bad news but... there is no normal . I know what you meant, what it would be like without ASD. But I'm not sure that would give you any particular insight into anything other than simply being a different person.
> there is no normal.
In a classroom of 30 students, where 1 is viewed by the rest as abnormal, there is normal. Yes, it is only a social construct whose impact is based on our personal experience and the society in which we live, but this is true of many things which I think we would not tolerate being dismissed so readily.
Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
What experiences did you have while on HRT that lead to you to believe this? In general, I'm specifically skeptic of claims of behavioral changes associated with HRT, as I feel as if a lot of those claims have roots in gendered preconceptions of women that have nothing to do with biological differences. People going through HRT will associate personal, unrelated, experiences with the medical transition, but cannot be…
Speaking for myself... The most obvious example was my response to emotional situations in fiction. Going from only being able to empathize with characters only on an intellectual level to also being able to empathize on an instinctual/emotional level was was so incredibly obvious it was like going from black and white to color. One the one hand, you could dismiss "I cry at movies now" as just an intellectually-drive…
Personally, the experience I have now at crying at literally anything can be explained quite well (by myself) by the impact of early childhood trauma, and the eventual intense psychotherapy I've undergone in relation to my transition.
That is, I eventually learned how to process emotions 'correctly', something I was never taught as a child. This is coincident with my transition. I am unclear if it has been directly caused by HRT, but I haven't ruled it out.
However. I absolutely disagree that this is a change caused by "intellectually-driven conformity with gender stereotypes".
Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism
#100I'd take this with... not quite a grain of salt, but maybe a small dose of healthy skepticism. Simon Baron-Cohen is a legitimate and respected researcher, but he's well known in autism research circles as pushing very hard a theory that autism is a manifestation of an "extreme male brain", which is a theory that almost every other significant researcher in the field disagrees with. I'd suggest taking a critical view of any research coming out of his lab that bolsters his pet theory, like this does - there's a lot of context here that's lacking.