North West health experts warn hundreds of women and girls are being misdiagnosed with mental health conditions

Health experts in and around Lancashire are telling us hundreds of women are depressed, anorexic and self-harming because they're living with undiagnosed autism.

Research shows men and boys are three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than women and girls.

Experts have told us this is often down to doctors confusing the signs and symptoms of autism with other mental health conditions when it comes to assessing females.

It means women are often told they're anxious, bi-polar or even schizophrenic because health professionals don't know what autism looks like in females.

Dr Lesley Taylor, Lead Clinical Psychologist and co-founder of independent practice Spectrum North West, said: "Women with autism have diagnoses of personality disorder, manic depression - as it used to be called - social anxiety, eating disorders and addictions.

"Mental health units are FULL of undiagnosed autistic women."

Dr Taylor said a lot of this was down to stereotypes of what autism looks like in men and boys: "There's no evidence statistically to prove it's equal, but my clinical experience is that I see a lot of girls and women who've come to us undiagnosed and are being missed having been assessed formally and then told they're not autistic when they are.

"The first thing that comes up on loads of the online searches is that autism is more likely to occur in boys than girls, as if that's the fact, and I think it's a myth.

"It's not a fact, but it's spoken about as if it is a fact.

"We've seen hundreds of people in our work, just in our own independent practice alone, who've come to us, and very often it's that they can't get past the GP to be assessed because of those myths about autism.

"Very often that first hurdle is where they're turned away and then told they're not autistic because they don't fit the pattern and that's because the pattern is still misunderstood as being a 'male one'.

"But even once you get past that point and go into mental health services, there is a huge lack of awareness of autism in women and girls, even within those services that are supposed to understand.

"Some of the comments and discussions I've heard within mental health services about autistic people have been shocking in terms of their lack of awareness and understanding.

"I think the challenge is that girls and women present (autism) differently, it's more subtle, and much less obvious. There are a lot of autistic women out there who are mothers, in relationships, highly successful people who just wouldn't fit that traditional pattern or understanding of what autism is supposed to be."

Dr Taylor said the knock on impact this is having on these women was huge: "Lots of women that we have assessed in our own private practice have talked about the idea that they've had to self-medicate because they find it so difficult to cope, particularly socially.

"And so people who maybe have difficulties with alcohol use, drug use, or maybe are remaining at home because they find it very difficult to cope socially and in a full time job, may get a diagnoses of depression when what they're actually dealing with is social exhaustion."

You can follow the story throughout the week using #LostGirls.

You can find more support for autism here: https://www.autism.org.uk/

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