“Some of the short term effects of Female Genital Mutilation are:
-Pain from surgery
-Bleeding complications
-Infections
-Psychological damage to the young lady who has received this surgery.
Long term psychological damage can leave the young lady feeling like she is not normal.
Medically speaking, I don’t believe FGM provides any medical benefits. It doesn’t reduce infections, it doesn’t cure anything, it just creates complications, and short and long term pain. I can’t think of any benefits, medically.
Socially, it may have some benefits to the women, if they have to live in that culture, but only in that culture that advocates it. But once they leave that neighborhood, or that area
and move to a more westernized society, there is really no benefit that I can personally see from having female genital mutilation.
In my practice I have seen a few women who have had FGM. The most common that I’ve seen are the Type 1, or in simple English, it’s the removal of the clitoral hood or the clitoris itself.
But I don’t see the advanced ones where they have sewn the vagina completely shut. So here in America, specifically California, we see a few of them but not many, like we see in areas like Cairo, Egypt, where I have a friend whose practice is 100% made up of repairing female genital mutilation. His every day work consists of repairing fgm, so there are that many cases in Egypt and Northern Africa.
If FGM is being done in the United States, it’s being done covertly, in a private office, coded differently. For example, it will be coded as vaginal repair or vaginal surgery. But in United States, it’s not well known, there are probably some being done, but it’s not well documented. No one will document it or report it, because it’s pretty much illegal.
For women who have undergone FGM, they can approach it in a couple of ways.
First, Get it repaired, medically, surgically. So find the best pelvic surgeon that you can find, whether it’s a gynecological oncologist, a urogynecologist, or even a plastic surgeon
who specializes, perhaps in sex changes. Those are the types of surgeons you would want to search out.
Secondly, perhaps just as important, they should get counseling or some kind of help in dealing with the situations that may arise, so there is not guilt involved or not issues with interpersonal relationships with a partner going forward.
So you have to hit it both ways, you can’t just fix it physically, you have to fix the mind and how it will affect personal relationships.
Amazing experience with our Thermi-O/ThermiVa/O-Shot/Dermoelectroporation training last week with Jennifer Berman of The Doctors TV show and Beverly Hills, Treasa Davis of Burbank, and Neeraj Kohli of Harvard/Boston Urogyn. Lively discussions and great cases! Though I was the teacher, I learned so much from their collective experience and at the same time deepening our friendships. Just great individuals with brilliance. Of course my ladies at the office had even more fun being silly!
We have Non-Surgical Thermi-O and Dermoelectroporation Preceptorships the last week of most months. You are all welcome.
Our book has been out a year now and hovers at the top of the list for aesthetic and cosmetic gynecology on Amazon. Congrats to my co-editors Christine Hamori and Paul Banwell.
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Female Cosmetic Genital Surgery:
Concepts, classification and techniques
Female genital rejuvenation is a hot topic, and the procedures are growing in popularity, thanks to more media awareness of this type of surgery. This comprehensive and highly visual text covers the important issues of patient selection and patient consultation as well as fully covering all the different operative techniques along with accompanying surgical video. There is a special focus on dealing with complications and how to deal with secondary cases.
Female Cosmetic Genital Surgery
2017 / 264 pp / 350 illus / hardcover / ISBN 9781626236493 / $249.99
SPECIAL DISCOUNTED PRICE: $199.99
History: A lady in her mid 30s complained of pelvic pressure and a loose feeling vaginal canal with lack of sensation during intercourse. She also suffered from a moderate bladder prolapse and a large rectocele that bulged out of her vagina and gave a chronic feeling of constipation. She leaked urine with laughing, sneezing, coughing, and sport activities. She wanted a return to a more active physical and sexual lifestyle after living with the symptoms for several years. Surgery: Vaginoplasty, Perineoplasty, Total Vaginal Hysterectomy, Incontinence Sling, Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery with Ultra Lightweight Mesh.
History: A lady in her late 30s complained of a loose feeling vaginal vault and lack of sensation during intercourse. She also suffered from a large rectocele that bulged out of her vagina that gave a chronic feeling of constipation. She leaked urine with coughing and sport activities and wanted to have a sling placed to resolve this problem. She wanted a more youthful appearance to her vulva and requested a labiaplasty with a clitoral hood reduction as part of her repair.
