Autism may stem from a different — and larger — set of genetic mutations in women than it does in men.

Nerve fiber tracts in the brains of autistic girls appear more fragmented than those of typical girls’. Autistic boys’ brains, meanwhile, look like those of typical boys.

People on the spectrum, and girls and women in particular, are at high risk of suicide; siblings of autistic people are also at heightened risk.

Adults with autism are nearly 50 percent more likely to die in the hospital than their typical peers.

Autistic women show unusually strong connections, and autistic men unusually weak ones, between two brain regions.

People with autism who harm themselves are more than 30 times as likely as the general population to commit suicide. The risk is especially pronounced among girls and women on the spectrum.

Boys and girls with autism get virtually identical scores on three commonly used diagnostic tests, suggesting that sex doesn’t affect the scores.