Effects of FGM

From the immediate cut, girls face a plethora of medical issues, ranging from pain and bleeding to death. Usually, there is no anesthetic used, and girls take weeks or months (depending on the type of cut) to heal ‘naturally’. The risk of HIV comes from the fact that implements used, whether they are knives or razor blades or other implements, are generally not sterilized in between uses, leading to the potential for many blood-borne illnesses to spread. Later in life, the risks of obstetric fistula, cysts, childbirth complications, and more increase the risks of chronic pain, bleeding, and again, even death.

In addition to these negative consequences for girls and women, the WHO estimates that the economic costs of treating health complications caused by FGM at 1.4 billion USD per year, with that amount expected to increase to 2.3 billion per year by 2047.

Girls who have undergone FGM face lifelong consequences that impact their ability to go to school, finish their education, and have economic opportunities later in life. This impacts not only them, but also their communities and families.

Communities are also negatively impacted by the fact that they are complicit in continuing this form of gender-based violence, which limits the community’s ability to see their girls and women as equals, and limits their potential.

This is why it is so critical to eliminate this practice, to allow girls and women to live hope-filled futures of their own design, uplifting themselves and their communities.

See how we do it here.