Thread by @SedgewickF

I'm going to try to tweet from the front for this one - I'm presenting on mental health of autistic men, women and non binary people at 11.10.

In this giant room (below)

But first is @dewinterjeroen talking about sexual relationships.
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Starts by telling us that this has only really been looked at in the last 10 years. Prior to that sexual interest was seen as pathological in autistic people

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Shows the Mind My Mind film - this is brilliantly done and very pretty!
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Also noting that there are huge areas we have yet to look at:

Gender differences
Qualitative accounts
Those with learning difficulties
Different cultures
Change over lifespan
Individual trajectories vs group differences work

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Teaching about puberty and sexual development is often seen as taboo or awkward, but is really important for young people who may not get this information from informal sources

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Most autistic boys have experienced romantic feelings and have some sexual experience by 18.

Same proportion of autistic girls have the same experiences by the same age.

So we should do our best to understand these to help this part of life be safe.

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Slightly lower rates of sexual experiences among autistic young men (16 - 20 yo) than non autistic peers, but still represent the whole range of experiences.

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Paraphilias (a scary word for not very scary things, it just means liking something on top of straightforward sex) are more common among autistic men than non autistic men.

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Watching porn is also very common among autistic boys.

We shouldn't pathologies this - so do most non autistic boys! But teaching about appropriate spaces and sharing is important.

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85.4% of autistic men reported an interest in sex, 72.6% of women.

But

40% of women and 21.9% reported having sexual experience.

That's an interesting mismatch...

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Autistic people are more likely to be attracted to their own or both genders, and autistic women more likely than autistic men.

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Some really interesting more detailed work on paraphilias among autistic people from Schottle et al - can't photograph from here!

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We're over time, but now running through info on victimisation, inappropriate behaviours, and offending.

Essentially, it happens, we don't know a lot about it.

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Conclusion slide - hope it comes out.

Trying to be sneaky at the front of a room that seats 2000 people is hard!
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His team have worked to put together a set of priorities in autism and sexuality research (missed photographing the slide sorry)

Hoping they will be published soon

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Next is Amanda Webster talking about narratives of successful among autistic women and men.

Lots of outcome work suggests we should have low expectations, but that is not the case

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Had 10 women and 10 men, interviewed about their lives and their own definitions of success.

Women all adult dx, men mostly childhood dx.

Self employment or self created jobs common among women, half married (one divorced), all had post18 education

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Men - one married, one dating, one divorced, single men generally dissatisfied. Only two men had children vs most women.

Men also in more "regular" jobs

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Key findings in photo:

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I'd like some discussion of how similar these differences are to those seen in non autistic men and women actually - the way it is being described sounds like there are a lot of parallels

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Women talked about big decisions and big turning points, whereas men talked about chains of small decisions adding up to change.

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This talk will be a bit interesting.

It's in French.

I forgot to pick up translation headphones.

Let's see how this goes.

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The talk is about sexuality of people with intellectual disability.

Pointing out that physical changes are universal, but can be challenging for autistic people and even more so when they cannot easily be explained in detail.

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Argument that autistic young people display self centred sexuality rather than other centred.

Different to findings of @dewinterjeroen in first talk, but possibly due to differences in those taking part.

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Ok, now my French has fallen down & I can't keep up with the way the methods are being presented sorry.

Seems to involve parents, professionals, medical evaluation of the teenager, interview (?) with teenager, and some questionnaires. Not sure who fills those out!
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Here I go!

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