love on the spectrum – A Is For Aoife Not Autism

Greetings Earthlings! 🙂

This week I’d like to talk about a rarely discussed topic when it comes to autism- contraception!

When it comes to autism, the narrative doesn’t tend to discuss sex and relationships due to the archaic perceived notion that most of us are asexual.

Newsflash- autistic people have sex! As such, it’s important to discuss the topic of contraception.

The use of contraception is entirely individual, but for autists there may be additional sensory issues that may influence their decisions. Texture and smell may be issues for latex products, contraceptive patches may aggravate skin sensitivities, and contraceptive injections and implants may freak an autist out (don’t get me started on how much I shudder every time a friend has shown me the contraceptive bar in their arm!😖).

Hormonal contraceptives on the other hand may negatively impact an autists mental state and behaviours. There are no studies on the impact that hormonal contraceptives may have on autists, but as discussed in my previous posts about the impact of hormonal fluctuations during puberty, menopause and menstruation, it’s quite likely that behaviours and mental health could be impacted by their use. I’ve seen many neurotypical friends get knocked about by hormonal contraception, so I can only imagine how much worse these side effects could be for an autist. Some autists have reported that their anxiety issues increased significantly when on certain contraceptive drugs, finding that their panic attacks completely disappeared after switching to a different drug. In contrast, others have found that taking oral contraceptives has improved their mental health as it has made sensory issues and pain around their periods easier to manage, particularly contraceptives that prevent periods. Studies have also found that oral contraceptives may be useful to reduce pica behaviours in autists.

Researchers have also made an interesting connection between hormonal contraceptive use and autism rates. In 2014 a hypothesis was proposed that the increase in autism rates over the last 60 years correlates to the increased use of hormonal contraceptives.

Yep- they are suggesting that contraception may contribute to the development of autism!

The hypothesis suggests that hormonal contraception alone would not cause autism, but a ‘double hit’ mechanism of contraceptive exposure in tandem with other environmental and genetic factors may increase the risk. It’s thought that when an egg is exposed to artificial hormones in the ovary it can cause damage to the egg increasing the autism risk. Hormonal contraceptives work by preventing the release of an egg, and as such, the retention of eggs in the ovaries could be exposing them to these hormones for prolonged periods of time with negative consequences. There are multiple studies on how prenatal exposure to testosterone increases autism risk, so it’s not implausible that the same could be said for other hormones. Progestin (artificial progesterone used for contraception) in particular has been linked to the regulation of brain activity and impaired cognitive responses during foetal development, with animal studies showing autism-like behaviour after prenatal exposure to the synthetic hormone. Much research is needed to confirm that the rise in hormonal contraception is indeed contributing to the increase in autism rates, but it’s a very interesting hypothesis!

Hope you enjoyed this post dear Earthlings! 🙂

Have a lovely weekend!

Aoife

Greetings Earthlings! 🙂

This week I’d like to discuss an Australian documentary series that I recently watched on Netflix called ‘Love on the Spectrum‘.

Love On The Spectrum - ABC and SBS - Media Spy

So what’s it about?

As the title suggests, the documentary follows several young adults on the autistic spectrum as they look for love, many venturing into the world of dating for the first time. The show also features some recently engaged autistic couples discussing their experiences of love on the spectrum.

You can see a trailer for the series here:

So what did I think of the series?

As I’ve discussed in previous posts, the path to love isn’t always the easiest for an autist. The search for love can be difficult enough for neurotypicals, but throw in sensory issues, social awkwardness, mind blindness and difficulty reading social cues however, and dating becomes a lot more complicated. The show-creator’s did a great job of accurately conveying these struggles to the public. Too often we’re told “if you made more of an effort”, “if you did this, said that etc.” you would have no problems finding love, but the reality is far more complicated.

It was heartening to see my fellow autists putting themselves out there, taking a chance on finding love when so many deem us “unlovable”. While some autists are content with the single life, the vast majority of us want to find love, so it was great to see this stereotype blasted by the show.

love on the spectrum northern pictures

On the other hand, I did feel a little ill at ease with the documentary at times. Dating can be extremely stressful, and I often felt that the ever present camera crews may have made the experience more difficult than it had to be. I know if it were me, the combination of first date awkwardness and the knowledge that my every move was being recorded (and judged) would have made me very uncomfortable. There was a lot of hovering during the dates, and I felt that producers weren’t as sensitive as they could have been to the needs of their subjects- it just felt like there was a real lack of emotional intelligence on their part (which is ironic given how many neurotypicals have told me I need to work on mine 😛 ).

I also felt it was a little bit odd that the producers only sought to set up the autists with other autists, or with other people who also had some form of intellectual disability. Many autists find love with neurotypicals, so why not feature them in the dating pool? I understand that for many on the spectrum it can be easier to date a fellow autist, especially given that they might better understand you, but for me the documentary just gave off the vibe that autists should only date “their own kind.” Perhaps if future seasons are planned, it would be useful to set up dates with greater neurodiversity, like in the British TV series ‘The Undateables.‘

All in all however, this quirky series was a delight to watch for the characters alone- it was so nice to just see these autists bouncing around, completely comfortable just being themselves. We could all learn a lot from them 🙂

Hope you enjoyed this post dear Earthlings! 🙂

Have a lovely weekend!

Aoife

Tag: love on the spectrum

Autism and Contraception

Autism on Screen- Love on the Spectrum

A Is For Aoife Not Autism