Medicalization of FGM.
The medicalization of FGM refers to situations in which the procedure (including reinfibulation) is performed by any category of health worker, whether in a public or a private clinic, at home or elsewhere, at any point in time in a girl’s or woman’s life. Communities may be increasingly turning to health workers to perform the practice for a combination of reasons, with the most recent estimates indicating that some 52 million women and girls alive today were subjected to FGM by a health worker (32). There is concern that attention to the health complications of FGM conducted by traditional practitioners could inadvertently result in an increase in the medicalization of FGM in some settings, as a response intended to reduce the health risks while continuing the practice. There is evidence that rates of medicalized FGM are on the rise. Efforts to stop medicalization were initiated by WHO’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean in 1979 at the first international conference...