Autism-Open Access
Open Access

Brief Note on Sexual Health in Adults with Autism

Kirsten Lehan^{* *}Correspondence: Kirsten Lehan, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Rd, Waurn Ponds, Australia, Email:

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Description

Developmental disability known as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is caused by differences in the brain. People with ASD may struggle with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. Atypical sensory perception, information processing, and motor skills are among the cognitive deficits that autistic people may exhibit. Most importantly, people with autism are different in behavior and face challenges with their intellectual abilities. Prior to recent increases in prevalence estimates, autism was considered to be a rare disorder, affecting approximately 1%-2% of the general population. Generally, males are diagnosed three to four times more frequently than females. As autism diagnoses increase in frequency, more adolescents and adults are being identified as autistic than ever before.

There is a common belief that most of the autistic people are not interested in sexual relationship this contradicts the widespread misconception. Significant disparities between autistic and nonautistic people in the area of sexual activity and sexual orientation, which may differ depending on gender, have been found in relatively small group of people as a sample test.

Lower rates of libido, lower rates of heterosexuality are some of the common findings in autistic people and autistic females in particular. According to a very large study, people who selfreported having high levels of autistic traits were 1.73 times more likely to identify as bisexual and 3.05 times more likely to identify with a sexuality that could not be classified as hetero-, homo-, or bisexual. In the general population females may be more likely to identify as bisexual than males, according to various studies. A recent study on autistic females indicated that they were 2.33 times more likely to identify as bisexual and 2.39 times more likely to identify as homosexual. The sexuality and experiences of autistic people may have important implications for healthcare.

Additionally, autistic people are particularly vulnerable to be sexually abused and commit improper crimes. In contrast to nonautistic people and autistic men, autistic females report have higher rates of unwanted sexual experiences and this may alter depending on a person's sexual orientation. Sexual knowledge may somewhat mediate the likelihood of sexual victimization. However, studies indicate that autistic people may have inadequate sexual education, as well as not having great thinking on sexual knowledge. When viewed as a whole, these findings point to a pattern of particular vulnerability among autistic people, and especially among autistic females as they were targeted more in the society comparing to autistic males. This pattern is probably the result of the additive effects of marginalization based on sex, sexual orientation, lack of sexual knowledge, and perpetrators taking advantage with the relationship of people with autism.

In addition to the consequences of sexual victimization, lack of appropriate sexual education may increase the risk of contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), which continue to be a major public health concern due to their potential to cause longterm physical health issues. Therefore, few studies have suggested that people with autism, intellectual disabilities, and other developmental disability have a chance of contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). However, this study is not aware of relative risk of STIs that exclude individuals who have not engaged in any sexual activity. Considering evidence of diminished sexual contact/ libido among autistic individuals, current studies may not be measuring relative risk of STIs between autistic and non-autistic individuals but instead are capturing relatively lower risk of engaging in sexual activity in general.