Outcomes of circumcision in women: A review of existing studies

According to the World Health Organization (WHO)، Female genital mutilation (FGM) involves the withdrawal or damage to a part or all of the external genitalia of women without a medical reason. According to the WHO، 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are circumcised and in various studies، the numerous consequences of this action are mentioned. In this review، we investigated the studies on the outcomes of FGM. In this study، the results of studies on the effects of FGM between years 2013 – 2003 in PubMed، Medline، Cochran library، Cinahl، Emro، WHO، Iranmedex and SID databases were investigated. In order to gather the information، first، articles that had one of the following keywords in their text (cutting / female genital mutilation، Infibulations، Female circumcision) either alone or with words Obstetrics / Gynecologic Consequence Psychiatric consequence health outcome، were searched and at the end a sum of 74 articles were collected. FGM is accompanied with complications، such as infection، painful intercourse، frequent urination، constant bleeding، painful menstruation، infection during pregnancy، and possibility of developing hepatitis and infertility in women. But since only few case-control studies have been conducted on investigating these effects in different countries، it›s not possible to deduce from some complications associated with FGM. FGM is one of the manifestations of human rights violations and violence against women and girls who have the right to have a healthy body. Despite the global efforts، there are still areas of the world that respect this tradition، Thus stronger and more serious measures to stop such actions are strongly suggested.