Female genital piercings count as FGM and have to be reported.

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

So any pregnant woman with genital piercings will be reported to the hospital safeguarding team who collate figures and pass figures of all FGM inc piercings onto the Home Office. I'm talking about adults who have chosen to do this themselves.

I doubt the home office are collecting statistics of male genital piercings.

If it's the woman's own choice, it's no one else's business.
The system is totally fucked

the independent

Id be interested to hear if any women here have been affected by this yet.

I used to have a clitoral hood piercing and I would be furious if I was reported to the safeguarding team because of it.

I don't have facts but I really think this is a tricky subject.

What I have learnt is that cultural FGM is considered normal by the majority of females, perhaps more the older generation but still it is accepted as the norm rather than abuse.

If the UK implement safeguarding measures how are they honestly to know whether or not it was the woman's choice? Because it's a pretty ring? What is the criteria to determine mutilation etc. The women genuinely being abused and mutilated may well say it was with their consent.

Whilst I agree with you, and would also object to my intimate choices becoming a statistical data I honestly think this is a wider issue the government are perhaps being over cautious (and rightly so) to include everyone rather than known cultures of FGM which may be perceived as being discriminate.

Whatty what what?!!

I have a clit hood piercing. I always apologise for it during my births/smear tests

Have I now got to worry about it?!

What source has this come from?
I work in a hospital that has a consultant who specialises in repairing FGM. It's not been passed down to us in our safeguarding of patients.

I work in a hospital and its been passed to us by our safeguarding team who say they've been instructed by the home office.

peyia

I get what you're saying but surely if there is no attempt to differentiate between true FGM and a chosen piercing then any data/stats which is collated by the Home Office is totally meaningless.

So basically if you have chosen to have piercing in your genital area you need to avoid nhs hospitals.....how the fuck does that help anyone??

I don't think it's anything to worry about or a reason to avoid hospitals. I do think it's something to be annoyed over. Safeguarding are just collating figures for the home office, not taking any action against people.

I think it's lip service Simon, the data monitored would be those from certain ethnic groups. However the government can't be seen to monitor only those individuals so roll out a nationwide wide policy that is inclusive of everyone.

I might be wrong but that's my presumption. Is there a criteria to highlight 'high' risk? I only skimmed the article.

So the data collected is not that relevant or important or actually useful? Waste of everyone's time then!

The data needs to reflect personal choice or inflicted decision else it's neither use nor ornament.

I can't see anything about adult women and genital piercings
February 2016 guidelines

Is your workplace stating to report in ethnic minorities liable to FGM? Or all women over 18?

peyja. I'm not sure maybe the hospitals do categorise the FGM (I know it's classified in 4 levels) so maybe they do collect figures for each level. But if that's the case why don't they just say we only need figures for levels 1-3 and not bother with level 4????

Maybe because it is as previously said because they can't differentiate between forced clitoral piercings and non forced ones. But I do think it makes any data on level 4 FGM meaningless and agree it's just lip service and a waste of money.

I don't have any piercings, but I'm not understanding why you need to avoid hospitals because of it? Lots of things get reported for safeguarding, and investigated/acted on if required, otherwise just logged for future information and analysis.

Or am I hopelessly naive?

When I went for my first midwife appointment in March 2015 there was a question in my notes asking if I'd ever had a genital piercing. I said no. I did have one but I'd taken it out a few years ago. I'm not sure I did the right thing by lying

My workplace is reporting all FGM. Regardless of ethnic background or age. Though actually any FGM (inc piercings) on anyone under 18yo we are to call the police. Which I believe is a national, legal requirement.

who classifications

And the home office say all FGM must be reported. They don't say don't hother reporting level 4.

There is only a duty to report any kind of FGM in under 18s.

Over 18, all professionals are mandated to do is signpost to FGM services.

So, yes, if a pregnant under 18 has genital piercings, that has to be reported, but an adult with them doesn't.

A child under 16 cannot consent to having their genitalia or nipples pierced as it constitutes indecent assault. A person under 18 is also not allowed to have a tattoo on their genitalia (or indeed anywhere else) as they cannot legally consent to it.

So, a child under 16 with genital piercings has been indecently assaulted and that should be reported, between 16 and 18 is a slightly greyer area imo. Although there is no age limit for any other kind of body piercing so...

Thanks for sharing that link of categories. I didn't know that much detail (I'm suprisingly sheltered) but it is disturbing.

I can't believe they do nothing with the data. How strange!

palmer. We have nhs England posters up at work saying that there is now a mandatory requirement to report all FGM. Poster doesn't say this is just for under 18s.

Palmer in that case is the data collected to propose changes in licenses for piercing shops? Surely they should check ID's etc. I'm naive with this but can't believe the data is going to be meaningless.

I'm still thinking it's lip service.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34681057

nhs guidance

States all FGM must be reported.

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/23/nhs-new-cases-female-genital-mutilation-fgm-three-months

And you end up with meaningless articles like this saying there's been over 1000 reported cases of FGM in 3 months. But for all I know 925 of those cases were clitoral hood piercings?