By Dr. Sanchari Sinha Dutta, Ph.D. Reviewed by Lauren Hardaker Feb 9 2026 Large-scale Swedish data reveal a female “catch-up” effect in autism diagnoses, reshaping how scientists understand sex differences in when, not whether, autism is identified. Study: Time trends in the male to female ratio for autism incidence: population based, prospectively collected, birth cohort study . Image credit: Elenka Klimova/Shutterstock.com A new study published in The BMJ points out that females are more