Autism diagnoses among women are growing. A St. Louis researcher seeks to understand why

A recent study of autism diagnoses found a notable increase since 2016 — but only among women. The study’s lead author, St. Louis University psychiatrist Dr. Erick Messias, analyzed more than 170,000 medical records for new insights into the condition. In this episode, we hear from Messias and Lyla Novakowski, owner of We Rock the Spectrum, a children’s sensory gym in Fenton. They discuss the challenges involved in getting an autism diagnosis, how families of autistic children are finding support, and the reaction of St. Louis’ autism community to efforts by the federal government to treat autism as an epidemic with a “root cause.”