Female genital surgeries, reproductive health and sexuality: A review of the evidence

Reproductive Health Matters

Volumn 7, Issue 13, 1999, Pages 112-120

  Obermeyer, Carla Makhlouf ^a   Reynolds, Robert F ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; FEMALE; GYNECOLOGIC SURGERY; HEALTH; HEALTH HAZARD; HUMAN; POSTOPERATIVE COMPLICATION; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SEXUALITY; SOCIAL CONTROL;

EID: 0032813769     PISSN: 09688080     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0968-8080(99)90120-9     Document Type: Article

References (47)

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3. The operations range from the relatively limited types which involve piercing or cutting the clitoris, all the way to 'pharaonic circumcision' or infibulation where the clitoris and labia minora are completely excised and the labia majora are pared and stitched; in between, there are several types of operations, including 'sunna' and clitoridectomy in which part or all of the clitoris is removed, and 'intermediate' operations which include a lesser degree of excision of the labia, with milder or no infibulation. The diversity of the procedures and evidence that the techniques of practitioners change over time underscore the need for, and the difficulties of, developing a standardised classification system, a task recently completed by the World Health Organization. See: Female Genital Mutilation: Report of a WHO Technical Working Group. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1996.
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