‘Female genital mutilation (FGM) constitutes all procedures which involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural or any other non-therapeutic reasons.’
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that between 100 and 132 million girls and women have been subjected to FGM. Each year, a further 2 million girls are estimated to be at risk of the practice. Most of them live in African countries, a few in the Middle East and Asian countries, and increasingly in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada.
Depending on the degree of mutilation, FGM can have a number of short-term health implications:
- severe pain and shock
- infection
- urine retention
- injury to adjacent tissues
- immediate fatal haemorrhaging
Long-term implications can entail:
- extensive damage of the external reproductive system
- uterus, vaginal and pelvic infections
- cysts and neuromas
- increased risk of vesico vaginal fistula
- complications in pregnancy and child birth
- psychological damage
- sexual dysfunction
- difficulties in menstruation
FGM takes a number of forms, is practised in a variety of countries and has been justified in a number of ways.
FGM is illegal in the UK under the new Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and under the Children Act 1998. There are laws against FGM in most European, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and in some African countries.
