Do you think that there may be a good deal of overlap between the two? Particularly in males (where there's like a 4:1 male:female ratio for Asperger's). My very first psychiatrist at the age of four (he only saw me for like one session I think and Dx'd me as autistic on the spot. Since I had above average intelligence, my school records had me down for high-functioning autism/PDD. They had me see another psychiatrist at age 10. At around age 4, we did see another psychiatrist for a "second opinion" and he did some sort of "test" on me (my parents don't know the details) and he said I wasn't autistic.
I also did a test for the autistic spectrum/Asperger's test online and I scored 31/40. Very borderline score. You need to score 32 to qualify. And then I took the test again later on when I started to desire social interaction more and I scored 26/40. I wouldn't be surprised if my score would be even lower if I took the test again because I'm even more social now. I'm not entirely convinced that I am on the spectrum. Maybe I have more "autistic" qualities than average. Most likely. A male friend of mine yesterday (who I know in real-life and sees me interact with the world in real-life) says that I'm definitely not autistic. That I'm not like a mutual acquaintance of ours named Andy (who is legitimately diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome). He says that my issues are likely due to social anxiety and relative social/worldly inexperience (he has social anxiety himself). And friends of mine have pointed out that I have made great improvement in the last 4-5 months. Exposing myself to social situations (going out every Saturday, sometimes twice a week) has helped me out a lot.
Also Aspies/HFAs tend to be oblivious when they commit the social blunders that they do (ie. rambling about themselves and their interests excessively. Having these one-sided conversations). I have a tendency to do this. But I'm at least aware that I'm selfishly dominating conversations. It's an old habit that is very hard to break. I'm pretty sure you've figured out by now that I actually like to talk (when I'm not socially anxious).
I still find myself to be pretty socially awkward (but I do learn from social blunders). And relating to women is just very difficult for me if she expects me to "take the lead". And I wondered if that was maybe a sign of having Asperger's. Since people on the spectrum have abnormally "male-oriented" brains. I'm actually surprisingly competent at times when chatting with a talkative, extroverted female. If she steers the conversation herself, I do a much better job. But if she expects me to steer the conversation (and most do), I inevitably hit a dead end. I don't know how to get girls interested and talking. I wish I had audio recordings and chat logs of every successful conversation I had with a female to "understand" why those conversations were successful. The only thing I made a mental note of over the years is that I can only seem to gel with talkative women. This whole shy boy/shy girl love fantasy thing I had over the years is just not feasible.