Are Autism and Gender Identity Connected? A Psychiatrist Explains

I'd like to know the proportion of the correlation in the other direction. 11x more likely to have gender identity issues if you have asd, but how much more likely are you to have asd if you have a gender identity issue?

The correlation may have much more to say about the social construct and fetishistic roles assigned to the binary stereotypes

As a nonbinary/gender questioning person, realising how linked the ASD and LGBTQ+ communities are has always concerned me. Are we led to believe we're queer because we have autism? Are we led to believe we have autism because we're queer? Are either of those things real, or just social constructs? Watching this video really helped solidify my confidence in my identity. Knowing that there's developmental and scientific reasons behind my brain function is a comforting fact. Maybe I should get checked out for autism...

This man is healing the internet.

dunno, I kinda think that majority of people with Gender Identity are actually bored in life so much that they end up imaging themselves as other gender.

i have autism and gender dysphoria, this helped a lot thank you!

I'd be really interested in a link to this study, if you would be willing to provide it. ?

Just a technical comment. I hear over and over about causation vs correlation but the is at least one class of systems that are causal in both directions.
Perhaps the simplest of such systems is a lever. You push down on one side and the other side goes up. Ok, so for this system the side pushed down is the cause. But if you were to push on the other side, it would be the cause. More complicated systems that exhibit similar behaviors are climate change and cornering a motorcycle.

Is it possible that hormones during pregnancy has an effect on both of these issues?

also dr. k, there was a whole few generations of gendered roles, so a lot of men a gen above yours + couldn't take care of a house / themselves (case in point my grandpa once my grandma passed away)

I mean, if you've seen the number of trans programmers / furries, it all checks out lol

Thank you for handling this video so well. As an autistic trans woman I was afraid to even click the video, expecting the typical talking down at us that most doctors do. but you were very humanizing and supportive with your language, and not dismissive of gender dysphoria. we need more doctors with this mentality.

You used a lot of assumed pathologizing terms in discussing this. A link means nothing except that their us a link. It doesn’t mean you can ever unlink them. And we know that mentalizing training (conversion therapy) almost always causes distress. We’ve been through this.

Now there are detransitioners for whatever reason. We know detransitioners according to large surveys in great number retransition. Now if you want to save the few people that don’t need transition from its distress it would be helpful to actually study the few detransitioners according to the population

Wow! I wish I had seen this back when it was originally posted. I am impressed, although the autistic community doesn't see being autistic as a disorder and would like that word removed from the name, Dr. K. is spot on. I am not a doctor just an autistic person who loves neuropsychology. Over 70% of the autistic/Neurodivergent communities are LGBTQIA+. The number of LGBTQIA+ people who are neurodivergent is much higher. I would be surprised if all LGBTQIA+ are not some form of ND, because of how the brain of Neurotypicals work.

Neurotypicals struggle with being different. They all have to be the same! If we lived in an ND world, there would be no fashion trends, there would be no cookie-cutter neighborhoods where all the houses look the same, and there would be no "Keeping up with the Jones" type behavior. Honestly, the world would be so much more peaceful because the ND communities are some of the most accepting of people who are different. We kind of look suspect at NTs who try so hard to fit in, because well it seems fake if you ask me. For a neurotypical to be LGBTQIA+ it would go against everything that their brain needs. It would cause their world to implode on them as their brain is wired to belong, be the same as everyone else, have what everyone else has, and blah blah blah. Boring to me, but whatever floats your boat!

I really think that there might be grounds for distinction btwn binary trans people and non binary GNC folks here

SO MANY of the trans people I know suffer from autism - and I here always thought it was a peculiar coincidence :D

It makes so much sense now. Holy crap.
Something I also noticed, in schools, is that neurotypical kids often bully those with a neruodivergent mind, often without knowing that kid has a neruodivergent trait.
This would 100% explain why in the political world, so many go after trans people constantly and attack them.
Only question now is... how come neurotypicals hate neruodivergents so much? What is in the human brain that triggers such an undefined hatred at such a young age for those with autism or adhd?

howdy, I was watching your videos and relating it to aspects on my life about gender and I had pondered about the potential links I might find in myself after your Alexithymia 101 video. Before I say anything, I just want to make clear that I know almost nothing about psychiatry, I'm just a male-born person diagnosed with ASD, I've had gender identity queerness thoughout life, and a history of mental illness and working on healing (going really good so far!).
So, I am currently not a typical transgender person, I don't do HRT, I don't currently present myself as I'd like, but this also kinda hints at what I've been pondering today. I definitely related to half of the behaviours in the Alexithymia 101 video, but the other half were complete opposite.. I feel that I'm very aware of my feelings/emotions, and I'm open about expressing and communicating them, but a lot of my mental health struggles have been related to life direction, inspiration and motivation. I find what I enjoy, then don't know what to do with that, and can't move on, causing stress and depression issues. In the gender related expressiveness I have had, it has always been a resounding feeling of positivity, with some extreme fear/dread mixed in.

Sooo.. getting to the point, I'm wondering if a strong link from autism to gender (at least in AMAB like me) is that the learning of emotions from our surrounding peers is misconstrued by autistic traits interfering, leading to alexithymia troubles that say "if only my life was changed", which then allows a person to make an emotionally charged- logic based solution, of devotion to self-identity expression.
The amount of people that I've seen start HRT and find a path to a joyful life, and even starting to find direction with their hobbyist passions is staggeringly large. I personally feel that I've noticed the life changes for others, but I've built mental barriers that I don't yet recognise that stop me from pursuing HRT, but talking with my psychologist, I've become aware that my self expression in regards to gender is a part of how I want my life to change (I see gender identity as part of positive change for myself).
I suppose to sum up what I'm saying here, maybe someone that is in the world of psychiatric research could see if there is this link with alexithymia that helps bridge the link between gender identity and ASD.
Thanks for work and reading and such :D

Here's what most parents of autistic children will think when they hear about this, "omg my child must be gay/lesbian". Man this is gonna be "fun"...