The experiences of menstruation, menopause, and autism, can be extremely challenging for girls, women, and people who have a uterus. I outline the current academic research on these issues as they intersect with autism characteristics. I refer to ‘women’ in relation to people who menstruate and experience menopause, while acknowledging that some non-binary and Trans masculine people also experience menstruation and menopause.
No AI was used in the production of this podcast.
Music: Hatamitsunami, "Imma Tell'em" [Epidemic Sound]
Show Notes:
Aririguzo, C., Spencer, B. S. and Freysteinson, W. (2022) '"You're acting womanish!" A qualitative descriptive study of the experiences of African American women in menopausal transition', J Women Aging, 34(2), pp. 258-275.
Groenman, A. P. et al. (2022) 'Menstruation and menopause in autistic adults: Periods of importance?', Autism, 26(6), pp. 1563-1572.
Karavidas, M. and de Visser, R. O. (2022) '"It's Not Just in My Head, and It's Not Just Irrelevant": Autistic Negotiations of Menopausal Transitions', J Autism Dev Disord, 52(3), pp. 1143-1155.
MacDermot, A. (2023) 'Silenced women: sexual orientation, medical discourses, and menopause', Sextant: Sexualities, Masculinities & Decolonialities, 1(2), pp. 78-86. https://sextantnotes.com/2023/12/21/silenced-women-sexual-orientation-biomedical-discourses-and-menopause/
McCrossin, R. (2022) 'Finding the True Number of Females with Autistic Spectrum Disorder by Estimating the Biases in Initial Recognition and Clinical Diagnosis', Children (Basel), 9(2).
Moseley, R. L., Druce, T. and Turner-Cobb, J. M. (2021) 'Autism research is 'all about the blokes and the kids': Autistic women breaking the silence on menopause', Br J Health Psychol, 26(3), pp. 709-726.
Steward, R. et al. (2018) '"Life is Much More Difficult to Manage During Periods": Autistic Experiences of Menstruation', J Autism Dev Disord, 48(12), pp. 4287-4292.
Whiley, L. A. et al. (2022) '“A part of being a woman, really”: Menopause at work as “dirty” femininity', Gender, Work & Organization, 30(3), pp. 897-916.
World Health, O. (2023) Menopause. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact sheets/detail/menopause#:~:text=Menopause%20is%20one% 0point%20in,specialized%20fertility%20treatments%20are%20 sed (Accessed: 26 September 2023).