my $question = {
    descriptions => {
        m => "male",
        f => "female",
        o => "other"
    },
    choices => [ qw/m f o/ ]
}

##</code><code>##

for my $choice ( @{ $question->{choices} } ) {
    my $text = $question->{descriptions}{$choice};
    print qq[<option value="$choice">$text</option>\n];
}

##</code><code>##

$valid = exists $question->{descriptions}{$answer};