Comorbidity is when two or more chronic diseases affect one person at the same time.
The biological relationship between gender dysphoria and autism is not well understood.
And theres a possibility that tying gender dysphoria to autism could lead to discrimination.
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Sometimes, people with gender dysphoria wish to be another gender and often take steps to satisfy this desire.
Gender Dysphoria vs.
Gender Incongruence
The termsgender dysphoriaandgender incongruenceare used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences.
Gender incongruence describes a mismatch between one’s assigned and experienced gender.
Gender dysphoria is when gender incongruence causes significant distress and impairment.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 36 children has ASD.
Transgender people are then subjected to diagnosis and treatment to have a new gender externally confirmed and imposed.
Although it is experienced by all of us, cisgenderism isnt spoken about much in public discourse.
Consequently, these adolescents suppress non-gender-conforming decisions for fear of judgment and ridicule.
Moreover, some autistic kids who recognize cisgenderism may not care.
Its plausible that gender dysphoria is just as common in children and adolescents both with and without autism.
However, autistic people wont suppress themselves in light of prevailing mores that perpetuate cisgenderism.
By not hiding their preferences, autistic children are more likely to be identified as also having gender dysphoria.
According to the experts, its automatically pathological to identify in a gender-nonconforming way.
Experts fail to see that gender isnt merely male or female but rather a spectrum.
Furthermore, experts delegitimize different gender experiences by labeling them as phases that will pass.
Summary
Although documented, we still understand little about the co-occurrence of gender dysphoria and autism.
Attempts to pinpoint causality between these two things are poorly substantiated.
Experts also dont understand how best to treat these two conditions when they present at the same time.
Its possible that the frequency of gender dysphoria among autistic children is equal to that of neurotypical children.
The world is set up for two gender presentations: male and female.
In reality, like sexual orientation, gender is likely fluid and lies on a spectrum.
World Health Organisation.Gender incongruence and transgender health in the ICD.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Data and statistics on autism spectrum disorder.
