FGM - lack of offer for victims

[Enterthewolves]

Apologies if there is a thread on this already.

I just read this article in The Guardian ‘No doctor in the country will touch you’: how the NHS is failing FGM survivors | Global development | The Guardian

This quote from Dr Almadori really struck me - “From a technical and surgical point of view, it’s not very difficult to perform these surgeries. These surgical techniques are available, clitoris reconstruction and labia reconstruction are available in the NHS, in the UK, not only for gender affirming surgery but also for conditions like lichen sclerosus, but not for FGM. It’s discriminatory to not give access to certain surgical techniques.”

The idea that men who want to co-opt their idea of womanhood can access cosmetic surgery to create neo vaginas but women who have been brutally cut, often as very young children, can't struck me as absolutely a perfect example of how women are denigrated by our society and how our needs, reality and selves are dismissed. It made me hugely angry and sad for every woman who is seeking help following FGM but more broadly for all of us whose health needs are so often dismissed because 'woman'. It also really struck me as an example of intersectional discrimination, women who have experienced FGM are discriminated against both because of their womanhood and their race/ethnicity.

It just makes me want to scream or cry. Does anyone know if there is a campaign group working in this space that is working for access to reconstructive medical care via the NHS? I want to donate/support.

I would be interested in how the political climate has also added to doctors being unwilling to get involved with FGM survivors. There has been political action against FGM awareness or support by the gender political lobby as it is something specific to being female that does not involve or centre male people.

The wonderful campaigner for FGM awareness and support, and a survivor herself, Hibo Wardere, has been very badly treated by the lobby. I can well understand doctors being extremely wary of opening themselves up to unhinged abuse.

Edited to add the link to this thread which may make interesting reading if you haven't realised before about how male people would rather see little girls harmed than permit women to talk about something that they can't enjoy being part of: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womensrights/4170253-Anti-FGM-campaigner-Hibo-Wardere-comes-under-attack

Thanks, OP. Part of the trouble as I understand it is that the laws against FGM are barely implemented/actioned.

FGM is widespread:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/female-genital-mutilation/april-2021---march-2022

• 'There were 5,620 individual women and girls who had an attendance where FGM was identified in the period April 2021 to March 2022. These accounted for 11,890 total attendances reported at NHS trusts and GP practices where FGM was identified.
• The number of total attendances and total number of individual women and girls with an attendance where FGM was identified, have increased compared to April 2020 to March 2021.

Convictions are vanishingly rare:

https://www.cps.gov.uk/foi/2023/female-genital-mutilation-charges-and-prosecutions

https://news.met.police.uk/news/a-woman-has-been-found-guilty-of-female-genital-mutilation-in-a-first-of-its-kind-case-for-the-met-474389

this organisation works to combat FGM: https://www.forwarduk.org.uk/violence-against-women-and-girls/female-genital-mutilation/

Jesus that is hearth breaking. The quote that stood out for me was

" There is a lack of justice in health inequity,” says Albert. “Women with FGM don’t shout the loudest, they’re very often invisible. I’m sure if it was a different group of women who wanted the surgery we would have had it by now.”

Yes, the male type of women can get this surgery on the nhs.

That is outrageous but not surprising.

The idea that men who want to co-opt their idea of womanhood can access cosmetic surgery to create neo vaginas but women who have been brutally cut, often as very young children, can't struck me as absolutely a perfect example of how women are denigrated by our society and how our needs, reality and selves are dismissed.

Agree completely. It's difficult to think of a more perfect illustration of how men's desires (based largely on vanity) are prioritised more highly than women's needs (based entirely on serious health problems caused, of course, by men).

The fact that this piece is in the Guardian, a paper that routinely prioritises men's wants above women's needs is the icing on the fucking cake.

We need a pressure group on this.

This is horrific. Thank you for sharing OP. I seem to recall she got lambasted by TRAs when speaking at FiLIA one year.

I was fuming when I read this. I'd be interested in chipping in to a campaign. I can't believe the writer of the article was simply left. Disgraceful that women are having to go to Germany.

I've always wondered why we have such stringent rules for protecting girls from genital mutilation for religious beliefs but not for girls at risk of genital mutilation for other ideological reasons.

I just had to teach about FGM.

I also teach several gender questioning teenage girls.

I find it so hard to understand why I shouldn't be reporting the gender questioning girls as being at risk of FGM. They are at risk of having their genitals mutilated. Maybe not soon, at least in the UK, but we are playing a part in concretising their adherence to this pathway.

But if they were from families of a different religion/race I'd have an obligation to ring the police immediately?

I am so confused. I am so glad for the draft guidance. And to bring it back to the thread topic, I am appalled that women cannot access FGM reparative surgery.

It's an appalling revelation and yet again, a classic demonstration of how screwed up we have become about prioritising women's health needs.

Thsi is the 'restore' project, still in early stages according to this page:

'A new project is underway, the end goal of which is to establish a National Centre of Excellence providing FGM reconstruction surgery as a treatment option for FGM survivors. The plan is for reconstruction surgery to be integrated within a holistic care package offering psychosexual and trauma therapy alongside other treatment options and support. The co-designed service will be delivered by a multidisciplinary team with Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) at its core. Surgery may then be the final option after careful psychosexual assessment, education and offer of treatment alternatives. This will be carried out as part of a clinical trial to ensure that robust safeguards are in place and that we contribute to the development of new evidence in this important area of healthcare research.
We believe that although not all women will want or benefit from reconstruction surgery, women should be able to make an informed decision to access this if they wish and we believe that the NHS should be offering this type of surgery to FGM survivors.'

https://fgmnetwork.org.uk/fgm-reconstruction-surgery/

@ArabellaScott thank you - I’m looking at it now.

Right, I’ve emailed to ask if there is anything I/we can do to help. Letter writing, petitions, generally raising awareness and supporting planned campaigns. Will update if I hear back. I am just so furious at the absolute dereliction of duty to these women. I work in the NHS, I know how stretched things are but FFS!! A fraction of the funding being pumped into ‘gender affirming’ care (maybe the electrolysis budget) could make a difference!

There are FGM support clinics across England - the only paeds one is in London though (at UCLH); & they’re far from evenly distributed eg both NE England’s are in Leeds.

It genuinely never occurred to me that they wouldn’t offer reconstructive surgery if it was required, given they’re the specialist services & those surgeries are available on the NHS for other conditions.

Offering it through FGM clinics I’d understand - so you can provide a package of psychological support alongside; so care is provided by teams with lots of experience of caring for survivors of FGM; & because they [should] provide a safe & supportive environment for vulnerable women. Just not offering it, though, is…

As you say OP, if they’re not going to open up that electrolysis budget I think it needs redirecting & ring-fencing. There’s no legitimate reason to fund it for males who are more hirsute than they wish but not females with eg PCOS & thus an actual beard that causes considerable distress: if the latter have to self-fund their hair-removal; the former should have to too.

I started a thread in October about the fact there’d been only the 2 convictions in the last 20 years & was a wee bit surprised by how little engagement there was: I wonder sometimes if people shy away from the topic because they’re worried about somehow appearing racist when/by discussing it & issues relating to it.

Thanks, Nitro. I didn't actually even see that thread - if the board's busy sometimes things just slip by.

OP let us know if you hear back and there's anything we can do. That sounds like a campaign that lots of us could possibly help with.