Women who have vaginal/clitoral piercings.....

[TheFecklessFairy]

are, next month, to be classified by the Department of Health as having undergone FGM. What the actual??

When they say 'mandatory reporting' what does this actually mean? Next time I go for a smear, will the practice nurse be obliged to refer my details on to the fanny police, who must then come round and interrogate my husband in case my hood piercing was forced upon me?

I suspect not. More likely is that women with a hood piercing will just be recorded, along with women who have undergone religious genital mutilations. My data will vanish into the overall dataset and that will be the end of it.

That said, if you spot me in the Daily Mail in a year or so, wearing a sad face and no knickers and railing against surveillance society gone mad I will eat my piercing words

If you take your piercing out, would it seal up again like rates do?

It seems a little more reversible than lopping everything off and sewing bits up.

I agree with Fickle, if its something an adult woman were to desire (some adult men desire to be circumsised) then if she is genuinely choosing to do so for her own reasons without pressure from outside influence, they she should be able to. If an adult would like to do something to their body they should be allowed to do so, body autonomy. Now, I 100% feel that FGM is wrong, I recently watched a documentary narrated by Meryl Streep called 'Cutting Tradition' which was very, very difficult to watch and I did have to mute and skip some parts, so I cannot personally understand why someone WOULD consent to that. The difference is that women are being forced into this, against their will and without anaesthetic or even basic sanitation.

A piercing carried out in a sterile environment is an entirely different matter, the word 'mutilation' means to inflict serious damage on something. A piercing doesn't do that, it doesn't cause (done right) damage.

I'm utterly appalled by this - how totally devastating for actual victims of FGM to have it trivialised in such a way.

I'm planning a clitoral hood piercing (better do it quick, huh?) and I am an adult. I will have it done by a trained piercer in a sterile environment. I will be told how to care for it and how to stop any infection.

How is that even remotely similar to a young girl being brutally mutilated against her will

It's not confined to sex organs though and genitalia - honestly I do check what I write but then still pick wrong from the spell checker.

pencil transplant = penis - I think my spell checker hates me else it's old fashioned and judgemental about what I can write about.

It's not right is it.

Midwives also ask during a booking interview whether the woman has FGM.
I wonder how many say yes.

I agree with many previous posters that this is awful. It really is trivialising it for the true victims who suffer female circumcision etc against their will.

For a grown woman to chose voluntarily to have a piercing, after being informed of all the possible implications, is completely different.

I've got my clitoris pierced and also the hood years ago. I was made aware by another piercer afterwards that the former is illegal and classed as FGM. I have never been asked about it by any medical staff (midwives, smear tests etc) I do usually warn them first and any man who dares to venture down there! I love mine.

My major concern is:

FGM would be regarded as abuse quite rightly yes?

Abuse is flagged up on a persons gp records as a safeguarding measure.

Abuse of a mother is automatically flagged as a safeguarding issue on their childrens records, as it's automatically assumed that the mother is at risk and cannot protect the child from harm. And this would then be reported / shared with other agencies as a safeguarding issue.

Does this mean that a woman with a genital piercing goes to the gp for a smear, and gets an alarm slapped on her and her child's gp records, which then is potentially shared with other people in order to 'protect' the child.

And before anyone says I'm scaremongering or exaggerating, it's nine of those things. I'm worried.

I am seeing a lot of conflicting advice on the Internet about which piercings are legal or not. I think the nhs could do well to clarify.

Fickle I suspect it wouldn't matter much even if there was clarification, as medical staff 'on the ground' will be unlikely to know what type of piercing is what, as it's not covered by any medical training, therefore reporting will vary widely according to personal opinion and perception.

What an awful infringement of a woman's right to body autonomy. And how terrible that actual FGM will be trivialised, and statistics will be made into a nonsense.

How stupid, how is a consenting adult female, the same as an U consenting little girl.

Wow.

If 'designer vaginas' are included, will that include anything in that area? Prolapse repair? Stitches after childbirth?

MiscellaneousAssortment say you took it out (piercing) for the smear etc then couldn't some staff then jump to some conclusion that something has been done and as you say little blips start going on your profile.

If your an African or Asian woman whose had a piercing could end up being profiled?

Well guess if you had gone for some cosmetic surgery and you weren't happy then if you were feeling quite mean you could then report them for FGM and CPS would be hell bent on pursuing it.

Omg...here we go again with the Nanny state telling us what we can or cannot do with our own bodies! There is a stark difference between a grown woman CHOOSING to have a genital piercing, carried out by a trained professional in a sterile environment (i.e. a licensed piercing/tattoo studio), and a child or young woman, having her genitals unnecessarily mutilated in the name of tradition or religion, usually without their consent (either through being to young to understand what's being done to them, fear, or force), and putting her health and sometimes her life at risk! And I agree with one of posts above - surely it will put women who have genital piercings off going for life-saving checks such as smear tests, through fear of being treated like a criminal, or a victim of a crime!

This is the most ridiculous thing I've read in a long while

And yet, needlessly cutting bits off of little boy's penises is absolutely fine.

Well until I can find out more I will not be going for a smear, or any other medical procedure or check that might require any examination of that area.

I can well imagine things going horribly wrong if some process was triggered by wrong recording or classification of a hood piercing.

It's a stupid box ticking exercise again.

Have I read the reports (not the headlines) differently to everyone else?

In the link provided earler it says:

'A Department of Health spokesman confirmed the move and said that piercings were a form of FGM even when performed on consenting adult women.

He added: “While there are challenges in this area and adult women may have genital piercings, in some communities girls are forced to have them.

“The World Health Organisation has quite rightly defined this as a form of FGM. We are taking every precaution to record genital piercings that have been done within an abusive context. ”

So not all genital piercings at all, although I agree it may well be difficult for healthcare professionals to identify those which have been done within an abusive context from those which have not.

Body piercer here. Piercing the clitoris itself (as opposed to the hood) is NOT illegal but it IS rare, the 2 main reasons being that not everyone is anatomically suited to it, and it takes a piercer of considerable skill with plenty of experience to perform this piercing safely. It's risky in terms of nerve damage and loss of sensation.

There are no 'illegal' piercings, although if this ludicrous ruling goes through, it looks like there may be a number outlawed in the near future.

Piercers are subject to the Female Genital Mutilation Act, although the number of piercers I've met who aren't aware of this is shocking. Before this brouhaha started, we were subject to the Act in that if a piercing was performed incorrectly and damaged the genitalia in any way (including reducing or completely removing the capacity to feel any kind of clitoral sensation/stimulation), it could be considered mutilation.

The fact they're extending this ruling to consenting women who have perfectly normal, well performed piercings is a massive blow to the body modification industry as well as to women in general. It's terrifying.

I just wish the powers that be would stay out of my vagina.

This is absolutely outrageous.

It takes away body autonomy, and places a woman's body in posession of the state. Women will continue to modify their body anyway, and may be more reluctant to be examined by a medical professional.

Men can have penis and scrotum piercings, are they going to be subject to this level of scrutiny?

What about circumcision performed on infants for non medical reasons?

The State appears to own every vagina in the land now

Saw this earlier and was completely

Many years ago I walked into a reputable piercing studio as a grown adult and had a VCH piercing. To put that on the same scale as FGM defies belief.

I used to have 16 genital piercings, 15 of which I performed myself. Where will the law stand on THAT?!