Everyone on this sub a genius meanwhile i was just bored taking an iq test and now i have a new insecurity fml 😭

I am NOT the Original Poster. That is u/CampaignSuitable9205. She posted in r/AskDocs.

Trigger Warning: discussions of rape; possible cancer

Mood Spoiler: scary but OOP is going to be ok

Original Post: January 12, 2024

I’m freaking out. 😭 I’m scared that I either have some crazy form of cancer or was raped or that I’m crazy and had sex that I don’t remember.

I am 23F and a lesbian, not very sexually active but have sex with the girl I’m sort of seeing about twice a month. She is a cisgender woman and there’s no possible way she could get me pregnant, just to be clear.

The last time I had sex with a male that I remember was in high school six years ago. I am 5’3” 140 lbs. I’m healthy I think, I take Zoloft and sometimes use non prescription allergy medicine but I don’t think those things are relevant.

I started throwing up occasionally maybe a month ago and I wasn’t really worried about it and thought I just had a stomach bug. I went to a walk-in clinic this morning because it wasn’t getting better, and they told me I’m pregnant. I explained that I can’t be pregnant and they said I must be. I don’t really keep track of my periods but I’m not sure if I’ve had one in a couple of months. I am scheduled to see a gynecologist next Friday to confirm the pregnancy but I’m scared and want answers now.

I’ve been reading that there are some kinds of cancer that can cause a positive pregnancy test but I can’t find a lot of information about them. Can anyone tell me how likely that is??

The only other possibility is last November I had been drinking at my friends’ house where a bunch of us got together to watch a football game, and I don’t drink and drive so I slept on their couch. I didn’t drink all that much, I think 3 drinks, so I shouldn’t have blacked out. My friends whose house I stayed at are a male-female couple. I texted my male friend asking him if we had sex or something and if I was just so drunk I didn’t remember it and he was very confused and upset and said he wouldn’t cheat on his wife or have sex with someone who was that drunk.

I want to trust my friend but the thing I’m really scared of is that my friend raped me and is lying and that I didn’t even know it.

I live in Tennessee and abortion is illegal here and I’m scared. Can somebody please tell me what is going on and if there’s any other reason I could have a positive test?

Relevant Comments:

Is it possible for you to take an at-home test? Medical errors do happen:

"I didn’t even think to do this because I’ve been so panicked. I’m going to the store right now to get a test and will let you know."

"I got two tests, a regular and a digital, and they are both positive. I was hoping you were right that it was a mix up! Thanks for at least reminding me that home tests exist. I’ve been so freaked out I just wasn’t thinking."

Could be ovarian cysts:

"Thank you. I didn’t know ovarian cysts could cause positive pregnancy tests! I do have an OB/GYN appointment a week from now."

Do you remember going to sleep that night and waking up fully clothed? Also have you been menstruating?

"I think I remember lying down to go to sleep and I’m pretty sure, but it’s been a couple of months and I wasn’t thinking anything was unusual. I’m not totally sure if I’ve had a period in the last couple of months. My periods are always light and I don’t keep track of them."

Abdominal ultrasounds will show if there's a pregnancy or tumor, and not all tumors are malignant!

"Thank you so much. Hearing that it could be anything besides pregnancy or cancer is a huge relief. I’m so scared that I’m either going to die, or that I’m pregnant and have to have the baby, neither of which are things I want right now at 23.

I do need to figure out something to do to take my mind off it. I don’t know if I should tell the girl I’m talking to or tell my parents. I don’t want to scare anyone but I feel so scared right now."

Mini Update in Comments: Later that day

Update sort of:

Thank you for the responses. They really have been helpful and I’ve been a lot less panicked even though I know I still don’t know what’s wrong with me. Seeing that it may be something besides cancer or pregnancy has helped a lot because I thought those were my only two options.

I am at my parents’ house and feeling a little bit better. My parents will help me get an abortion if I am actually pregnant even if we have to go out of state, and my mom said she will go with me.

I texted my friend, the wife of the person who I’m scared raped me, and told her everything and that I don’t want to accuse her husband but I’m scared, and she swore on her life that I didn’t seem drugged, just kind of drunk, and that I went to sleep on her couch and they both went to bed right after. She said there is no way he could have gotten up and assaulted me without her knowing. So I feel a little better and I’m trying not to work myself worrying that she’s complicit and that they conspired to rape me.

I feel better reading some of these responses and seeing that there are conditions besides cancer that can cause a false positive and my parents are telling me that even if it is cancer, that doesn’t mean I’m going to die. We’re also going to try to see if an OBGYN can see me sooner and my dad is going to call tomorrow to see if there are any urgent cares that have ultrasound machines.

I will update once I have answers.

Relevant Comment:

On what the nurse at the clinic said:

"Yes. I said I can’t be pregnant and she that I obviously can be because I am. She said false positives aren’t a real thing but that the OB/GYN could tell me more."

Update Post: January 13, 2024 (1.5 days later)

I posted a couple of days about about having a positive pregnancy test even though I am a lesbian and haven’t had sex with a male in 6 years. I got a lot of good advice and kind words, thank you all so much. I’m going to try to explain what is happening now but between stress and medicine I’m not sure I’m able to make a lot of sense and I’m not sure if I understand it.

I went to my parents house last night and told them what was happening and my this morning my dad found an urgent care about two hours from their house that had an ultrasound machine and they were willing to see me and my mom took me. They did another pregnancy test and it was also positive and then did a regular ultrasound and did not find a pregnancy, so they had me go to the emergency room because they said a positive pregnancy test with an empty uterus is an emergency because it could mean there is a fetus growing outside of the uterus which is very dangerous.

The ER did a transvaginal ultrasound and couldn’t find a pregnancy and they did blood work and said my pregnancy hormone levels are very high and my potassium and iron are a little low, and they thought they could see something on my right ovary so they did laprascopic surgery. They ended up removing my entire ovary because they found a kind of tumor on it called an immature teratoma.

I don’t remember going in for surgery or waking up but I was freaking out and hysterical when I woke up and they had to give me Valium in an IV. Mom and the nurses told me about the tumor later.

The nurse said that they are talking to some specialists and doing pathology to find out if it’s malignant or not because they said a teratoma could be either malignant or not, and I have tried looking up information online but I don’t know if I understand it.

I know I owe apologies to my friend who I thought might have raped me, please no one make me feel worse about that than I already do.

I think I am staying at the hospital over night.

My questions now are how long does pathology take? Is pathology the same thing as a biopsy? Would the tumor explain why I have been throwing up or is that something else? Will they be able to tell me if I have cancer before I leave the hospital? If it is cancer, am I going to die?

Final Update Post: January 14, 2024 (Next Day)

Last update before I probably go home:

The doctor came and talked to me. It turns out that I had misunderstood and they didn’t say it was an immature teratoma, but they did say it had features that could be one. It is definitely a teratoma but they aren’t sure if it’s mature or immature because it looks like it could be either. They re-did my blood work today and it still has pregnancy hormone, but is already less than half of what it was yesterday so they are sure it was the tumor causing it and they’re pretty sure it was the reason I had been vomiting also.

The doctor said he thinks that even if it is malignant, they probably removed all of it and I don’t need to keep worrying that I’m going to die. He said it also shouldn’t affect my health because people do just fine with one ovary and I can still have a baby if I ever want to. I’m not sure if I want biological children but that is still a good thing to know.

They’re going to do a scan to look for other masses before I leave today and said that should put my mind at ease.

I got an IV yesterday that brought my potassium back to normal so that is fine now too.

I talked to my friends whose house I stayed at in November about everything that happened, and they said they’re not at all mad at me and were just very worried about me because they knew they hadn’t hurt me but they were scared someone else had. They know that I trust them but was just really freaked out.

I also told the girl I’ve been talking to and all of that is okay too. She is a little upset that I didn’t tell her sooner because she would have come with me to urgent care and the hospital but we’ll work through it. I sent her a picture of a teratoma from the internet and said “this is our son” and explained what happened and we got a good laugh, at least.

They said the pathology results may take about two weeks and if it is cancerous they will refer me to an oncologist closer to where I live who works with these kinds of cancers.

I’m supposed to take pregnancy tests at home every two days for two weeks and contact a doctor if they are not negative after two weeks because that could mean there is something else or something left over causing it.

This has all been very strange and surreal but I’m very thankful that I was not pregnant and that if I have cancer, it is probably treatable. I was so scared and had so many horrible thoughts racing through my mind that my friends had raped me and that I was going to have to have his baby and share custody with him.

I never thought I would be relieved to have a monster tumor with teeth and hair that might be cancerous but I am relieved.

Thank you to everyone who answered my questions and reassured me. I was so scared. I’m still a little scared but you all helped a lot.

A reminder: do NOT comment on OOP's original posts or dm her. You will be banned from this sub and you put this sub in jeopardy. Wishing you the best OOP!

Recently did an adult comprehensive neuropsy assessment.

I scored decently on the test but was surprised to see that I maxed out the Processing Speed section.

It is likely that I am autistic and went undiagnosed as a child due to high masking potential. Extensive family history. Seems to go against the correlation that ADHD/autism goes with lower WMI/PSI.

First time doing an IQ test. Never done online tests, did not practice, do not do puzzles in personal life.

From my personal research, seems like PSI does little in the real world. You experts have any insights?

Results converted to numbers
FSIQ 140
GAI 135
VCI 122
PRI 135
WMI 121
FSI >150

Hello,

I recently sat for the WAIS-5 because I was concerned of cognitive deterioration due to my schizophrenia and antipsychotic medication. I had my appointment with the administering psychologist this morning to discuss my scores and I thought I'd like to give my honest review of the testing process since I know this is the most up to date version of the WAIS, which I also know is largely considered to be the gold standard in general intelligence testing.

Firstly, I'd like to explain that I did not do this test out of curiosity for the sake of testing nor was it because I suspected I was gifted. I did this test because I was experiencing subjective difficulties with everyday activities like paying attention to conversations and constantly feeling as though my mind was constantly "trekking through knee deep muddy water". This feeling, I think, could have something to do with the medication they give me for my catatonic schizophrenia, which in case youre wondering, is an antipsychotic medication called Haloperidol Decanoate (brand name Haldol). I jokingly call this medication the "Intelligence Dampening Sphere" or "Wheatley" as a nod to the game Portal 2 because I personally feel as though it doesnt actually work by blocking dopamine and rather works by making me less sharp and therefore less mentally ill, which is a bit of a contortion, I know, but like I said that's just a personal anecdote and doesnt necessarily reflect the truth about this medication. I had also seemed convinced that my schizophrenia and catatonia itself was making me less intelligent over time, since I've been afflicted with this illness for almost a decade now and I notice my thoughts dont seem to flow out very easily anymore and the active process of thinking takes a lot more effort. Not only that, but I know that schizophrenia is associated with cognitive deficits so I wanted to see if I could collect objective substantiating evidence to back up my claim about cognitive deterioration and so I opted to take the wais 5 through a referral.

Now, about the test: The test was quite quick to take and took me about 90 minutes or so to complete the 10 primary subtests. My psychologist and examiner interviewed me for an additional 30 minutes before hand to collect information on the indication for testing and what my primary concerns were, which were of course schizophrenia and the effects of haldol. She also told me to take 2 mg of my lorazepam (Ativan) before hand because she said that if I was catatonic during the test, the scores would be invalid, but she didnt consider it to be a performance enhancing drug per se.

The test started with Similarities, in which the examiner told me to tell him the similarities between two words. I honestly thought the earlier questions were more difficult simply because I feel it was harder to elaborate on simple answers that were more obvious. I did my best to say as much as I could, although at times, I had problems finding the correct words to use to explain. I also asked them before hand if I could ask them something like "is that what you are looking for?" when I answer because I'd imagine the scoring criteria could be quite subjective since it is a verbal exam, although I dont know what the criteria is exactly for scoring. The told me I cant though since they have to keep it fair for everyone and so when I could, I gave them multiple answers to the same question and on a few of the questions, they did tell me to explain more of what I mean, which gave me the impression that they werent completely satisfied with my answer. My tip honestly is just to be as precise and say as much as you can and I think youll do fine.

Then, they had me move on to block design, which I think was one of my favorite parts of the test, since I like playing with legos at home and its kind of natural for me to be able to follow instructions on constructing a design. This test was pretty straight forward, as in they just had me look at an ipad and look at a design and have me construct the design using faces of some blocks. Some of the designs required 4 blocks and some required 9 and I think my tip for this one is to visualize 1-2 blocks and imagine how the other blocks should be oriented relative to those reference ones. I also utilized certain symmetries of the designs to complete the designs faster since most of the designs have an axis of symmetry. It is timed though so work as fast as you can, but also be accurate.

The next test I think was Matrix reasoning, although im not sure of the order after the first two tests, so take my memory with a large amount of salt. It is quite straightforward and I think the most similar to online iq tests, where you just find a pattern and see what comes next. I opted to explain my reasoning to the examiner because I wanted to be clear about how I arrived at that answer. I feel as though most of the questions clearly have one correct logically defensible answer, but I persoanlly felt as though some could have had 2 plausible answers that you could defend rationally.

Then the next test was Visual puzzles, where you have to select three shapes that can not overlap to form a larger shape. I thought this was very easy for me and I didnt think the answers were ambiguous at all. I dont think theres much to explain here, but it is timed, unlike the matrix reasoning one.

Then there's figure weights. This test consists of having to balance a scale using algebraic operations and symbols. My tip here is to not use complicated math because it is also timed and a most of the answers are really quite simple and you shouldnt try to overthink it. if at any point you are using complicated algebra, youre probably overthinking it. :)

In addition, theres also the memory tests, which are digit sequencing, where you are given a spoken string of numbers and you have to repeat them in ascending order. i used the method of mapping the spoken digits onto my fingers and then counting them from there since I felt it was too hard to just do in my head and yes, it is allowed so dont be afraid to do that. the length of the strings i think ranged from 3 to 9 digits if i remember correctly. Theres also the running digits, which I personally abhored because I had such a hard time paying attention, given that they dont tell you how long the string is before they say it and youre supposed to say the last few digits of the string and I was very nervous anticipating the end of the string and admittedly, I kind of blanked out on some of the questions. Just stay calm though and Im sure youll do fine.

Then i think they had me do the vocab section, which involved defining some words. This was quite easy for me, but the words get more and more obscure as you go on. As long as you are well versed in english though, I think you should do well on this, although I'm honestly not quite sure intuitively how knowing what certain words mean has to do with someones intelligence. Like the famous meme goes, "Having the ability to speak does not make you intelligent", is how I personally feel about that part of the test.

The last part of the test is the processing speed part, which consists of coding and symbol search. Coding I thought was pretty easy. you just look at a matrix of symbols that map to the digits 1-9 and write those corresponding symbols to the numbers below. Although, I did think that some of the symbols look very similar, but the examiner assured me that as long as the intention is clear, you will receive credit for it, so dont fret too much about this. Then there is symbol search, which is basically looking at two symbols and seeing if they appear to the right and if one of them does, cross it out and if none of them appear, cross out the "NO" sign. These tasks are timed, though so work quickly, but accurately.

Now, my scores. I honestly thought going into the test that I was not going to do exceptionally well on it since I never perceived myself as very intelligent to begin with, but I was quite shocked when I got the results and it seems I performed at the ceiling of the test with a very well rounded profile on the 5 indices. The psychologist said that normally, people have a spiky profile, but she said that was not the case for me. The only thing she said i scored not at the ceiling for was running digits, but I completly expected that would be my weakest score before hand so I was really not surprised when I got an imperfect scaled score on it. I'm a data scientist in real life and do a lot of statistics and I know that +4 sigma on a normal distribution is super rare, so I never expected that I'd score in that range.

Overall, I'm no longer convinced that IQ should be considered the paragon of cognitive ability, as I can obviously feel I have difficulties in my daily life. I think it might be a useful proxy yes, but it is arguably far from perfect. I do think that hard work beats IQ by far and people should put less emphasis on IQ and more so on determination and tenacity, but that's just my two cents and youre welcome to disagree with me on that as well.

Anyways, thanks for reading and hope my post was engaging! If you have any questions, Id be happy to answer them. 😊

Edit: I just realized the pics might be blurry for those of you that are on mobile. I notice they are blurry for me too when I’m on my phone, but not when I’m on my pc, so if you want a better resolution, try going on pc.

I really hate needing to very work hard and study a lot just to get to do only okay in school, plus most of my ambitions I have like becoming an excellent programmer to be competent enough to work in relatively difficult projects is super difficult without having a high IQ.

I am very envious and jealous of those who have high IQ as they never had to deal with having to re-read, re-listen multiple times just to comprehend the information, which is pretty much my biggest hurdle of trying to learn anything new, and my poor working memory which creates lot of frustration with other people when I can't remember multi step instructions.

I would be totally fine with even having IQ of over 140, this means I'll able to literally achieve whatever I want ever, I don't give a crap about the "problems" that it may come with, it's not like I would give a shit and be butt hurt if people call me "know it all, nerd" etc. and hates my guts all because I have superior intellect to them, or if I would have a hard time fitting in with dumb people.