Autism spectrum disorder research funding may be biased in favor of studying ASD in males in the United States

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a prevalent developmental disorder that presents differently between males and females. Males are diagnosed with ASD at a higher rate than females and tend to present with more severe behavioral characteristics. Consequently, there may be funding and research discrepancies based on biological sex in ASD research where females with ASD may be less represented than their male counterparts. To assess whether such a funding and research disparity exists within the United States research system, we searched the United States National Institutes of Health grant reporting database (RePORTER) for grants and projects that studied the relationship between biological sex and ASD research in humans spanning the last 10 years (2009-2019). We document a discrepancy in the number of studies and the amount of federal funding dedicated to studies of ASD in males versus females in the United States. While funding of most of ASD research (85%) is dedicated to research in both sexes, only a minor portion (0.4%) is dedicated to ASD research in females (compare to 14% dedicated to ASD research in males). Similarly, the number of funded studies dedicated to ASD research in males (8 of 43) predominates over the number of studies dedicated to ASD research in females (1 of 43) (research in both sexes, 34 of 43). As a result, research dedicated to females with ASD is underrepresented relative to their male counterparts. We suggest that the imbalance between ASD research and funding of males and females may result in gender disparities in our understanding of ASD.