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‘Correct’ Answers on My Medical ‘Knowledge Assessment’
I just started the recertification process for my Family Medicine board certification. Today I’m doing an online exam (which now has the academic-sounding name Knowledge Assessment) on general medicine – no specific topic like cardiovascular disease or dermatology. It’s supposed to cover typical stuff that one is likely to encounter in a primary care office, and make sure you know what you’re supposed to do in various common situations. The first few questions were as expected, rashes, heart disease, intestinal issues, and so on. Typical stuff. And then I get to question #6:
A 13-year-old who was assigned female at birth has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. His parents fully support their child and affirm his gender as male. On examination the patient has a sexual maturity rating of Tanner stage 3. Which one of the following steps would be appropriate for optimal support and therapy for this patient?
Ok. So the patient was “assigned female at birth.” I wonder why? Eh, no matter, I guess.
And now this patient “has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.” Who diagnosed the patient with gender dysphoria? How? Is this doctor more likely to be correct than the doctor who “assigned female at birth“?
The question emphasizes that “His parents fully support their child…” His? Are you sure? And what exactly does “support their child” mean? Do they support “him” more than other parents support their children?
Tanner stage 3 means early puberty changes. Which, if the patient was “assigned female at birth,” that means breast development, etc.
So then, I’m supposed to answer this. And I need to get it right, so I can score high enough on the test to pass, and move on to the next stage of my recertification. I know that the first answer, “Encouraging conversion of the patient’s gender identity to be congruent with the gender assigned at birth” is obviously wrong, and is only there to identify Republicans and other hate-filled bigots. So I skip over that one.
Next, “Recommending delaying any gender-affirming treatment until he is at least 18 years old to prevent adverse psychosocial outcomes of puberty suppression“. Of course not. Another obvious trap.
The next choice seemed like a decent cop-out: “Ordering genetic testing and ultrasonography to confirm the gender assigned at birth“. I chose this one, because I wouldn’t have to mutilate a healthy child, but I could sort of pretend to play along. Why I would need “genetic testing and ultrasonography” to identify a girl I can’t imagine, but I chose this, because I just couldn’t bring myself to click on the obvious correct answer:
“Recommending GnRH analogue treatment” – using hormone analogues to shut down puberty and normal development.
As you can see, I got the question “wrong.” And my test grade fell a couple points.
They list “Peer Responses,” and 40% of physicians chose the correct answer. Probably because it’s obviously correct, and they’re trying to pass a test. I like to think that they wouldn’t actually do that to an actual child, but of course I don’t know.
Remember, this is a test question about a condition that didn’t exist until a few years ago. And now, we have “correct” answers on tests about it. You should bear in mind that we’re still arguing about how to treat heart disease, which has been killing people for as long as there have been people. We’re still not sure. But with trans-sexual children, we’re sure. So sure, that it’s on the test. With “correct” answers.
Just a few years ago, some women were more masculine than others. That didn’t mean that they weren’t women. And some men were more feminine than others. That didn’t mean that they weren’t men.
But now, just as with leftism in general, there’s no room for diversity. Try being a black Republican. Or a Democrat who is anti-abortion. Or a medical school professor who disagrees with hormone blockers in children who feel like the opposite sex.
This is how we’re treating kids who are finding their way through life. If they don’t fully conform, then we tell them they’re sick. There’s something wrong with them. They require “treatment.”
The intolerance of the left is getting worse. Fast. In all sorts of different ways – even in medical recertification exams.
This is not the first time this has happened. Looking at previous examples of leftist intolerance, the results have been horrific.
The memes and jokes write themselves for such absurdities. But this is not funny.
This is scary, scary stuff.
Published in General
Things are moving fast. It was less than 3 years ago that I picked, for one of the many mystifying sociology questions on the MCAT, the answer with “patriarchy” in it. No idea if it was correct. I just figured that if a sociologist puts that on a hook, I’m supposed to bite on it.
But you should.
Because everyone needs to know how the medical profession is being systematically destroyed.
Kinda along the same lines as I was talking about here.
This is why I tell my friends “Don’t get sick.”
Is there a way to push back on this answer, as well as the wording of the question, without destroying one’s career?
Sounds like a tale from the old Soviet Union.
I would say the condition always existed, but now there is a bizarre cultural expectation. I feel like the correct answer would involve a lesson in meaning of words and not much more. God help the doctor who gets sued for not “properly treating” some guy with “menstrual cramps”.
This is so upsetting.
It is so wrong.
The smart doctors will leave because they can’t practice in this ridiculous environment.
It’s like the Dred Scott decision in which the Supreme Court ruled that a freed slave could not be considered freed. Doctors are being forced to participate in something that is wrong and harmful for their patients.
Until I read this post, this was largely theoretical stuff that parents could get around if they wanted to.
Not anymore.
So many children being hurt by this.
It was always .42% of the population until all of this mass hysteria broke out. Something like that. If somebody actually has it, they are genuinely suffering. What I see is a bunch of amateur Stalinists creating it in little kids.
But if they are suffering, what are they suffering? Having the wrong or undesired, chromosomes? And who’s right, the chromosomes, or your feelings of what chromosomes that created you? What’s the treatment for that?
No, if this is an ailment, this is a social ailment, one of fitting into a culture, and not physical or biological one. And if there is something actually wrong with the individual, cosmetics won’t change it. Neither will redefining the terminology.
I comfort myself with the fact that in a few years the malpractice lawsuits against doctors who “treated” these people are going to be massive.
I sure hope so.
I don’t have the meme handy, but it goes something along the lines of “Hey Trans person – Why should you expect me to accept you for who you are when you haven’t accepted yourself for who you are?”
Thanks Doc, now I can spend the rest of the day trying to shake off my disgust, not to mention my additional distrust, of our current medical profession. I really thought all of this gender idiocy was overblown hogwash that wasn’t being taken seriously by serious people. I mean, it’s not like you live and work in New York or California. Don’t you practice in Tennessee?
Dennis Prager has a psychiatrist on his show regularly. People genuinely get this problem. They feel like hell, and they have felt like hell for a long time. I will leave it to smarter people than me to come up with a solution.
They don’t identify with the body they are in. I wouldn’t describe it as social, necessarily. It probably is when all of the Stalinist, communist teachers are engendering it in children.
I have no idea of how to solve this problem. All I know is gender dysphoria has been around for a long time.
I don’t know what you mean. Gender dysphoria has been a genuine diagnosis for a long time, but again I don’t know what you are saying.
That’s what I hear. The videos they smuggle out about how the industry views it are incredibly damning.
This is my view on these things. If you can’t help it, you can’t help it. The issue is, if you make a great big public deal out of it. The new thing is “essentialism”. Don’t make a great big “essentialism” thing out about your race or your sexual orientation and mostly people don’t care and it’s not a big problem.
When it comes to homosexuals, this is my view. If you’re really being yourself and you’re not deliberately trying to make a great big public deal out of it, nobody cares. You can be a flaming fairy almost anywhere if you don’t make a great big “essentialism” spectacle out of it.
Having said that, it was completely idiotic that the government said that homosexual household formation and heterosexual household formation are the same thing. This makes absolutely no sense.
If there isn´t, there needs to be. Like yesterday.
Look up Deirdre McCloskey. Total cross dresser. Nobody is a better pitch for conservative values and intelligent government. Totally can show that bourgeoisie values in a traditional family are the way to make society go. Higher GDP, fewer problems. Furthermore this person is an Austrian, which is the only way to look at economics in the long run. In my opinion he/she doesn’t make a great big public deal out of the gender dysphoria issues or whatever you want to call it. He/she just can’t help it.
Listen to the interviews from about eight or nine years ago of her.
What a leading question. Any progressive knows the “correct” answer without the benefit of medical training.
And now that ‘they’ know you chose an unsatisfactory answer to that question I’d be prepared to receive some training materials to assist in advancing your knowledge in this important area. (Get indoctrinating propaganda to re-educate you.)
This is about control and tearing down society. I don’t remember it now, but I recently heard a really good description of how the left needs to just interrupt every traditional and ordinary thing to get their way. They have to tear everything down.
If that’s the state of “medicine” now, it’s time to…
I must really be out of it because I don’t understand why this wouldn’t generate at least some controversy.
So it is getting to the point of “believe this nonsense or find another job”?
Everything Moves Towards Communism All Of The Time™
Deirdre is more conservative than Donald was, as I recall he was more of a postmodernist. I’m not sure I’d call Deirdre an Austrian, but her later work is pretty good. I think this makes your larger point.
Her own description is, she started out as a communist and now she’s an Austrian. I can’t remember if it was the reason magazine interview or the Cato one. The Cato one doesn’t have the word “Cato” in it.
I don’t see how you can argue with anything she says. If you leave out her analysis, you’re going to have problems. You’ve got to develop human capital and you’ve got to have honest well-adjusted people to create trade.
I never would’ve paid attention to her except she got invited to Saint Cloud state to speak by economist King Banaian, who is pretty socially conservative and he used to post here.
Of course none of this matters because everybody is an inflationist and you have to use the system to steal from your fellow citizen. lol
This is [CoC] horrifying.
Although I’m not sure which is more horrifying: the exam question or the fact that I’m not surprised to hear about it.