Any Benefit For Female Circumcision

Female genital mutilation is popularly called female circumcisions in many part of the world. It was very common some years ago. It is not tied to Christianity or other popular forms of religion. It is more of social and traditional belief.

It is sad to find out that this act is still much with us. According to statistics (2018), more than 20 million Nigerian women are victims. That is about 20 percent of the women population. It is done in most cases in the eight day during the naming ceremony. Very few wait until the girl is now an adult or about to get married.

Types Of FGM

Female genital mutilation is classified into 4 major types.

Types of FGM

Type 1:  this is the partial or total removal of the clitoral glans (the external and visible part of the clitoris, which is a sensitive part of the female genitals), and/or the prepuce/ clitoral hood (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoral glans).

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Type 2:  this is the partial or total removal of the clitoral glans and the labia minora (the inner folds of the vulva), with or without removal of the labia majora (the outer folds of skin of the vulva).

Type 3: Also known as infibulation, this is the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the labia minora, or labia majora, sometimes through stitching, with or without removal of the clitoral prepuce/clitoral hood and glans (Type I FGM).

Type 4: This includes all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area.

Deinfibulation refers to the practice of cutting open the sealed vaginal opening of a woman who has been infibulated, which is often necessary for improving health and well-being as well as to allow intercourse or to facilitate childbirth... source: WHO

Who Is At Risk

It is happening in almost every tribe and region. They remove part or in very few cases all of a girl's outer reproductive organ.

The main reason tied to this act by most people still doing this is to reduce a woman's sexual urge. This they think will prevent her from committing adultery in marriage and prevent bringing disgrace to the family. There are many other reasons such as preservation of chastity and purification, family honor, hygiene, increasing sexual pleasure of husband, etc.

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There have been a couple of research work on the sexual activities of girls with partial or total FGM. From what I have been able to gather from all, cut women had negative sexual experiences and specifically adverse changes in desire, arousal and satisfaction were experienced among cut after marriage. But many still had orgasms especially women who requested for it.

Danger Of FGM

While there are a lot of documented benefits tied to male circumcisions of which the process is quite straight forward, there are bad records for FGM. Majority of these acts are done by old people, especially women in local settings without much care for hygiene. There is a high risk of infection. Others include shock from pain and hemorrhage, acute urinary retention following such trauma, damage to urethra or anus in the struggle of the victim during the procedure, chronic pelvic infection, sexual difficulty, etc.