I know a man who was diagnosed with Asperger's as well as another brain dysfunciton at an early age. When he was a child his speech was very delayed and I guess his stims alarmed people. His family is wealthy so he got the "best" treatment which involved being placed in several institutions. He has a memory of being taken from the institution to hospital where he was subjected to an operation. He has scars near his genitals and to this day does not know what the operation was that caused him to have these scars. All records are lost because it was 25 years ago. He thinks that he might have been steralized. He has anxiety about seeing a doctor. He's too poor to support a family, so the issue of whether or not he has been steralized has never been a pressing issue for him. Does anyone know if treatment for autism in the past include such procedures?
I don't know what country he is in, but a long time ago people who were thought of as 'mentally incapable' could be sterilized, and up until the late 80's this was still done in sweden.
Some parents still try to get their children sterilized, we have a thread about that.
He could ask for a test by his doctor, which would look for active sperm cells, such as is done for men who have had a vasectomy and they want to check if it has worked or not.
This would have taken place in Ontario, Canada. It really does trouble him very much so hopefully there is some way for him to heal from this or get some sort of restitution.
He's 35 years old. This man is my partner and we're trying to find a way that he can join the rest of society without having to go through procedures and assessments that he can't afford. He can't even get on income assistance because the procedure for applying requires him to do a job search first which would entail leaving his present under the table employment and then waiting for months to get on income assistance, while doing the job search that he is not really capable of because of co-morbid issues. He takes good care of himself, but has these barriers to being integrated into the rest of society.
Is health care free in Canada, such as seeing doctors for a test?
I meant a test for being sterile or not.
OH. Yes he could go to the doctor and have the test done. He doesn't do well with doctors. The last doctor would not take him on and directed him to find a regular physician. That was our first attempt.
I could take my freind to my physician whose office is miles away but if he has a meltdown in her office I'm afraid that she will also refuse to treat him and she will assume that I am having a relationship with a lunatic. I know that he has a brain dysfunction but it amazes me that so many g.p.s do not know that a person's behavior can be a result of brain dysfunction and not some perverse desire to be difficult.
I have thought of emailing his mother. She is a wealthy woman with a strong work ethic. She believes her son is cured due to the treatments she paid for over the years. She has been told her son is cured. But he is not cured. He gets by just by working under the table. He pays no rent and gets enough cash to buy decent groceries. Aside from that, there's no where else for him to fit in. But that would invade his privacy. He also has a strong work ethic and does not want his mother to know of his struggle.
I've had to edit this because I think I have been a bit insulting to my freind in the way that I described his behavior in my original post. I'm also afraid that others will think I am being co-dependent or taking too much responsibility for his issues.
Contact the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. Doctors are required to keep all records of patients for 50 years. In the meantime find a family physicians or clinic where you live if you do not have one already. The records will have to be sent to some doctor likely. The scars could be caused by many different procedures. A sperm count is a fairly simple test and might be able to be requested from such a doctor.
If this man is a Canadian citizen and working "under the table" he might be exploited by his employers as well. If he is illegally in Canada, it is a whole different situation.
We've been told that Canadian physicians are required to keep records for seven years. Much of my own records have been lost because they are older than the seven years. If it is true that they are required to keep them for fifty years in Ontario this will help alot. I'll check it out.
Thanks for the tip. It seems unlikely that he has been sterilized, given the information posted about the scars.
It is great being in a relationship with another aspie. I am amazed at how quickly his mind works in the area in which he is gifted. I see it, but I doubt many NTs would see the talent. Or they would find it threatening in someway and then because of lack of social skills they tend not to value his perceptions.
Well I don't know if you have any statistics for that, but in the past men and women with autism were sterilised, so governments, doctors, must have been worried about it.
Those AS genes don't just pop up out of nowhere, you know! :wink:
Sterilization for men with AS is useless. Most of us will end up not having any children anyway.
I'd like to see the statistics for how many of us enjoy any of the traditional privileges that come with adulthood. How many of us cannot marry because we have been so discriminated against in employment that raising a family is beyond our economic means? For that matter how many of us can actually afford to go out on dates? Also, it's a long haul in life to try to figure out a niche to fit into when there are so many social and economic barriers in place. I wouldn't be surprised if statistics would show that we form relationships later in life than the average just because it takes us that long to deal with all the complexities that NT culture gives us to deal with. If we were protected as a minority group then society would have to respect us and we'd soon become the darlings of the politically correct academics. These are just some of the reasons why it's important that we be recognized as a minority.
Thanks, I've already told him that information. From all the information we've gathered here I think he might have had a hernia. What's really strange is that his parents refuse to talk about it which adds to the mystery and his anxiety over what the scars are from. I think the main thing is that he is expressing a sense of lack of control over his own body while he was institutionalized as an Aspie.
anandamide, the procedure for vasectomy now will not be the same as from 20+ years ago. Keyhole surgery was very new for such delicate procedures.
Especially something performed in an institution rather than a health clinic.
I think it would give you both peace of mind if you found out for sure via a fertility test.