By contrast, less than 5 percent of adults in the Netherlands’ general population have an identity other than cisgender 3.
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One of the most frequently cited studies found that about 15 percent of autistic adults in the Netherlands identify as trans or nonbinary the percentage is higher among people assigned female at birth than among people assigned male, a trend seen in other studies 2. Many studies have examined the prevalence of gender diversity among autistic people. How common is gender diversity among autistic people? Researchers often use the phrase ‘gender diverse’ as an umbrella term for different gender identities, similar to the way some people use ‘neurodiverse’ to describe variations in cognitive style, including autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. People who identify as the sex they were assigned at birth are called ‘cisgender,’ or cis, whereas those who do not may use terms such as transgender, nonbinary or gender fluid. Gender identity is a person’s internal sense of their own gender. Here we explain what scientists and clinicians know - and don’t know - about gender and sexuality in autistic people. Researchers are also making gains on how best to support autistic people who identify outside conventional genders.
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The field is beginning to get a clear picture of the extent to which the two spectrums overlap: Gender identity and sexuality are more varied among autistic people than in the general population, and autism is more common among people who do not identify as their assigned sex than it is in the population at large - three to six times as common, according to an August study 1. The observation has spurred researchers to work to quantify the association. In the 1990s, as growing numbers of children sought care related to their gender identity, clinicians and researchers began to notice a trend: An unexpected number of these children were autistic or had autism traits. Gender, like autism, exists on a spectrum.