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Female genital mutilation (FGM)

Mutilatio genitalium femininorum · Mrzačení ženských pohlavních orgánů (FGM)

female only

What it is

Cutting of girls' external genitalia for non-medical reasons — 230 million women alive have undergone it; it has no benefit and lifelong harms.

Symptoms & signs

  • Pain, bleeding and infection at the time
  • slow, painful urination and periods (infibulation)
  • pain during sex
  • cysts and scarring
  • difficult childbirth and tearing
  • trauma and PTSD

🚩 Get help if…

  • call 112 / 911 now Heavy bleeding or unable to pass urine after cutting
  • call 112 / 911 now Fever, shivering or spreading pain after cutting
  • see a doctor soon Repeated urine infections or trouble passing urine
  • see a doctor soon Painful periods, painful sex or pregnancy after type 3 FGM

Where it strikes

Medical treatment

  • Specialist FGM clinics
  • deinfibulation — opening a closed vulva, ideally before pregnancy
  • treatment of cysts, infections and pain
  • psychosexual counselling and trauma therapy
  • safeguarding of daughters (a crime in most countries)

Natural & lifestyle

  • Peer support and community education
  • pelvic-floor physiotherapy

Emerging & experimental

  • Clitoral reconstruction — mixed results, better with psychosexual care
  • fat grafting and platelet-rich plasma for scar pain

Alternative, off-label & anecdotal

Approaches used outside the guidelines, with what their supporters report and what testing has found so far.

  • Herbal and traditional healing after cutting — spreads infection; not a treatment anecdotal / traditional
  • Sex therapy and mindfulness — small studies improve sexual function early / small studies

ICD codes