The results come from an analysis of five unrelated databases that all include information about autism, mental health and gender.
Cisgender, or cis, refers to people whose gender identity and assigned sex match. Researchers often use ‘gender diverse’ as an umbrella term to describe people whose gender identities - such as transgender, nonbinary or gender-queer - differ from the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender-diverse people are also more likely to report autism traits and to suspect they have undiagnosed autism. People who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth are three to six times as likely to be autistic as cisgender people are, according to the largest study yet to examine the connection 1.
Double rainbow: Gender identity tends to be more varied among autistic people than in the general population.