Well first was self-dx'd, then was officially/unofficially dx (aka not on medical/mental health records) but by a professional and now just going about putting it on the records.

ner... Im a self diagnosed ADHD, but im sure it wouldn't be all that difficult to get a real diagnosis.

I'm not a woman but I was professionally diagnosed.

I prefer the company of men. Most of my friends are male, even though I'm female. I've often thought women tend to be too emotional and two-faced; men won't ask you to fill in for their therapist unless it's actually important (rather than some weepy bitchfest about how her boyfriend is disrespectful because he ate the last Pop-Tart) and if a guy has a problem with something, he's about as subtle as a divebomber.

I wonder, maybe that's got something to do with my possible AS? Hmmmm... *ponders*

Somewhere in-between.  It came up on multiple occasions while I was seeking help for anxiety, but I've never had the money to pursue an official on-paper diagnosis since then(I can't believe how expensive it is!).  I can hold a job okay, so I will probably wait until it's not a huge hardship before going back to finish the process.

I definitely think female aspies are more often overlooked.

And it's ridiculous that it should be so expensive to find a formal diagnosis.

It's money's way of telling you, if you pass off as NT, you will get the privileges of an NT.

Perhaps it doesn't work that way for everyone.

I have been 'officially' described as presenting with traits of ASD by my local mental health team, and my GP has now referred me to a specialist adult team for a proper assessment.

I don't know whether it is true of all women on the spectrum, but from what I have read, from my own experience and from talking to a few other women on the spectrum, I think women/girls present very differently to men/boys.

I think very many women on the spectrum become expert in 'pretending to be normal'. I also wonder whether it is easier for women to 'hide' because (in my experience anyway) you can get quite a long way if you are 'fey/kooky/etc' if you also happen to be young and relatively attractive.

Unfortunately for me after doing it for the majority of my adult life, I found that pretending to be normal was unsustainable.

I could have written the above comment word for word!  I was kind of P.O.ed that I didn't score higher on Baron-Cohen's SQ test, especially since I have a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering!  
I think Aspie women fly under the radar for all of these reasons:  
it's OK to be shy (and in fact is bad to be "forward"),
we may have some built-in social advantage as females that compensates somewhat for our Aspieness, something the males lack completely,
we CAN get by on our looks if our behavior is not too bizarre,
we may tend less towards violence, unlike our Aspie brothers, so we are less noticeable than they are,
and if we have just ONE kind NT girlfriend who can show us the ropes and keep us from going too far off course, someone who values us for who we are, we can pass for normal.

BTW, I'm self-diagnosed, and waiting for a windfall to get officially diagnosed.  Someone wrote about providing paperwork in advance to the diagnostician.  What kind of paperwork?  I have diaries.  I think they make it fairly plain, but surely no "professional" would want to look at them??

SO glad to find an online group that can select out the females!!

If you live in the UK, Simon Baron-Cohen's CLASS is now free to patients and GPs, as they have charitable funding. You do still need a GP referral.

See here:

http://www.autismresearchcenter.com/clinical/class.asp

I wrote about my difficulties under these headings: Family Background, Social, Emotional, Physical and Work. It came to about 4 pages. I gave it to my local mental health team, and it has been forwarded to CLASS along with my report from the mental health team.

The National Autistic Society has a good guide to adult dx:

http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.j...045&a=3341

I think being female made it harder to get an official diagnosis, especially as I didn't meet enough criteria for an autism diagnosis. Growing up, nobody knew Asperger's existed, there was just classic autism. I wasn't officially diagnosed until I was 28, and even then, I didn't meet all of the criteria.

I was diagnosed as manic-depressive. My psychiatrist was pretty sure there was something going on, but he was way off-base.