Towards the equal recognition of autism in girls and women (BMJ, 4 February 2026)

Summary

Autism has long been regarded as a condition that predominantly affects the male sex. More recent research, as well as common self-reported experiences of autistic women, suggest that the true ratio is less skewed and that current practices are failing to recognise autism in many women until later in life, if at all.

The harms of underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of autism in women—harms that are infrequently reported in medical research but are often discussed in the autistic community—extend beyond barriers to appropriate interventions, supports, and accommodations afforded to correctly diagnosed autism in women. For example, in a report from the Autistic Women’s and Nonbinary Network, patient Helena described how before her autism diagnosis, her misdiagnosis of borderline personality disorder led to a stay for a year and a half on a psychiatric ward. “I think they were misinterpreting everything I did and assigned me motivations I didn’t have . . . Possibly that partly explains why the treatment was quite ineffective and why I stayed so long and they didn’t know what to do with me.”

This BMJ editorial discusses the recent research from Fyfe and colleagues that suggests that autism may actually occur at comparable rates among male and female cohorts.