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ABSTRACT
Recent studies have reported a high prevalence of autistic spectrum conditions (ASCs) in adults with gender dysphoria (GD) versus the general population (Jones et al., Citation2012; Pasterski, Gilligan, & Curtis, 2014). This study utilized snowball sampling to collect data on gender identities, self-reported diagnoses of ASCs, and AQ-10 scores of individuals with GD. Of 446 respondents, 14% reported an ASC diagnosis. Higher AQ-10 scores were observed in those defining as male (M = 5.66, 95% CI [5.10, 6.22]) versus those defining as female (M = 4.25, 95% CI [3.55, 4.35]) and in those assigned female-at-birth (M = 5.67, 99.9% CI [4.91, 6.43]) versus those assigned as male-at-birth (M = 4.11, 99.9% CI [3.53, 4.69]). The genderqueer group (M = 5.73, 95% CI = [5.20, 6.26]) had the highest observed mean AQ-10 score. This study has implications for the management of those with GD and for researchers owing to both the large number of nonbinary individuals identified and to the complexities identified surrounding language when researching this group.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, Ruth Pearce and Krissie Pearse for their assistance in preparing this work for publication, in addition to the members of the advisory group and everyone who responded to or helped to publicize this study. The authors report no conflicts of interest.
FUNDING
This research was made possible by a grant from the URSS scheme at the University of Warwick.