ABSTRACT
Until relatively recently, the issues of marriage or other close sexual relationships among adults with autism had received little attention. It was generally assumed, either implicitly or explicitly, that intimate relationships simply did not occur or if they did were so rare as to be of little general interest. Among the sixteen follow-up studies reviewed in Chapter 2, for example, only 6 per cent of the individuals involved were reported to be married and only in two studies were there accounts of individuals with children of their own. Generally, if sexuality were written about at all, the accounts mostly concerned inappropriate or unacceptable sexual behaviours and how to deal with these. However, given that autism is, in the majority of cases, a genetic disorder, it is clear that within the families of many (possibly most) children with autism there will be mothers and/or fathers who share the same condition. Genetic family studies have confirmed that close relatives are very likely to manifest some components of autism, including problems related to language (from articulation disorders through reading and spelling difficulties), social relationships, and/or rather rigid patterns of behaviour, interests or beliefs (see Lord and Bailey 2002). Clinically, many professionals working in this area have become aware that one or other (and sometimes both) of the referred child’s parents share characteristics in common with their offspring. More recently, too, there have been published accounts by individuals (mostly women) whose partner has autism or Asperger syndrome. Many of these accounts have focused on the difficulties of being married to someone with autism, and a number of self-help or professional support groups have been set up in order to help women in this situation. Websites for partners of people with autism are also on the increase (see www.nas.org.uk for further information).
