Abstract Objectives: This study aims to investigate if a sampling method using virtual networks is feasible to survey AS adoption among this “hard-to-reach” population of Brazilian doctors. Methods: An online piloted 11-point structured survey questionnaire (designed using Googleforms®) probed the actual treatment patterns for adult patients with PTMCs, including treatment decision-making nonoperative options, was undertaken between 10 November and 30 November 2020. Participants were reached by the mobile phone Application (APP) and a snowball sampling strategy was used to recruit a total of 4783 members (maximum number of potential reach), which is the total of doctors of the all 21 social media WhatsApp® groups. Results: From a total of 4783 members (maximum number of potential reach), there were 657 (13.7%) doctors (actual reach) who clicked the web link of the questionnaire, out of whom 512 (10.7%) fully completed the online survey. Among the survey respondents, 361 were endocrinologists (70.5%) and 151 were surgeons (29.5%). Overall, for low-risk PTMCs in an elderly patient, 118 responders (23%) recommend AS, while 390 (76%) recommend immediate surgery as the management, including lobectomy (18.5%) and Total Thyroidectomy (58.2%). The present responders tended to recommend surgery for PTMCs that were located adjacent to the dorsal surface of the thyroid, were multiple, or raised the size during the follow-up. Conclusion: Using snowball sampling strategy as an innovative route to conduct surveys was feasible and applicable but the rate of response was still very low. Our data also suggests the need to investigate if AS is embraced by Brazilian doctors.

Resumo O objetivo desse artigo é oferecer uma leitura latino-americana feminista a respeito de representações de gênero que constituem o discurso de guerra às drogas dos EUA para a América Latina. Baseando-se na literatura feminista sobre segurança internacional, esse artigo visa explorar algumas nuances do discurso de guerra às drogas dos EUA quando isso se trata de gênero. Ele argumenta que, embora um discurso genderizado esteja constantemente presente no discurso oficial dos EUA, ele tem visivelmente mudado de caráter à medida que as políticas antidrogas dos EUA se tornaram cada vez mais internacionalizadas, militarizadas e orientadas por uma ‘abordagem do lado da oferta.’ Uma vez implantado através da feminização do consumo de droga como uma degradação moral do corpo social da nação, o discurso dos EUA de guerra às drogas mudou perceptivelmente para abranger um processo de hiper-masculinização da figura do guerreiro antidrogas, apoiada por masculinidades e feminidades representadas pelo subalterno, feminizados guerreiros antidrogas Latino Americanos, e os senhores das drogas implacáveis e hiperagressivos. Em última análise, as cartografias genderizadas do discurso de guerra às drogas dos EUA funcionam como condições de possibilidade para enquadrar a guerra às drogas como única ‘solução’ para o ‘problema da droga’ e reafirmam a busca incessante por soberania que tem como último objetivo o controle total, dominação, e vigilância da interação humana com substâncias psicoativas, atributos de uma masculinidade de um estado hegemônico por excelência. Através de performances de (in)segurança de gênero, o Estado defende não apenas suas fronteiras ‘físicas’ de ameaças externas, mas também suas próprias fronteiras de possibilidade.

Abstract This paper aims to offer a feminist, Latin-American reading on the gender representations that constitute the discourse on the US war on drugs in Latin America. Drawing upon the feminist literature on international security, this article explores some of the nuances of the US war-on-drugs discourse when it comes to gender. It argues that, although a gendered discourse has been constantly present in US official discourse, it has visibly changed in character as the USA’s antidrug policies became increasingly internationalized, militarized, and oriented by a ‘supply-side approach.’ Once deployed through the feminization of drug consumption as a moral degradation of the nation’s social body, US war-on-drugs discourse perceptibly changed to encompass a process of hyper-masculinization of the figure of the US drug warrior, supported by subordinate masculinities and femininities represented by the subaltern, feminized Latin American drug warriors, and the ruthless, hyper-aggressive drug lords. Ultimately, the gender(ed) cartographies of the USA’s war-on-drugs discourse work as conditions of possibility for framing the war on drugs as the only ‘solution’ to the ‘drug problem’ and reaffirm the incessant search for sovereignty that has as its ultimate goal the total control, domination and vigilance of human interaction with psychoactive substances: attributes of a hegemonic state masculinity par excellence. Through gendered (in)security performances, the state defends not only its ‘physical’ borders from external threats, but also its own frontiers of possibility.