Female genital mutilation can cause infertility
You might be thinking the same thing I did when I read the headline: “well that’s obvious.” But then I thought about it for a minute. Female genital mutilation is “superficial:” nothing is done to the actual reproductive parts of the female sex organs. Traditional female genital mutilation (FGM) — otherwise known as female circumcision — that is practiced in some places in Africa and elsewhere, is the pricking of the clitoris with needles, burning or tearing of the genitals and/or tearing the vagina. Sometimes a clitoridectomy is performed, which completely removes the external part of the clitoris. More thorough “modifications” will actually completely remove the clitoris, inner labia and external genitalia.
Unfortunately, the barbaric practice is still somewhat common in sub-Saharan Africa, despite the best efforts of entities like the WHO, and legislation by national governments. But it is the infertility caused by this mutilation that will likely have the greatest impact on decreasing the frequency of this mutilation. Many tribes in Africa value a woman’s fertility above all other things, and recent findings show that infections caused by the procedure (performed in unsanitary conditions) severely inhibit a woman’s ability to have a child.
“Children are bedridden for at least a week following mutilation and suffer immediate complications and infections of the reproductive system, and repeated urinary tract infections that often lead to kidney failure. But very, very few make it to hospital. As a result, the untreated infections of childhood ascend to the uterus and fallopian tubes causing scarring, inflammation and infertility,” says Almroth.
Infection is rife not only a result of the unsanitary conditions in which the surgery is performed, but also because the young age of the children lays them particularly open to infection. “A pre-pubescent girl’s vaginal [tract] is a low protective-oestrogenic environment, and the lack of vaginal acidity in these young girls allows the bacteria to thrive,” Almroth adds.
FGM is performed for a variety of reasons in many cultures. Sometimes it is considered analagous to circumcising a male: the foreskin is considered a “female” element, and the clitoris is considered a “male” element. Removing the foreskin or clitoris makes the person completely male or female. Other reasons for it include stemming the sexual desires of a woman; many older women believe that the younger, more attractive women will seduce their husbands, and so the practice is handed down from generation to generation.
But the greatest fear in sub-Saharan culture is infertility: it is a social disaster for a woman if she cannot conceive. And it is this stigma that Almroth is banking on to halt FGM in these cultures.
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