It has long been believed that autism is more common in men than in women. This has been explained, in part, by the idea that girls have better communication and social skills, which can make autism harder to detect.
Now researchers, including at the Karolinska Institute, have analyzed autism diagnosis rates in 2.7 million people born in Sweden between 1985 and 2022.
The results, published in the journal BMJ, show that although men were more likely to be diagnosed with autism during childhood, women caught up during adolescence. By the age of 20, the differences were almost gone.
According to the researchers, there is a need to investigate why women are diagnosed later than men.
