Medicina comunitaria y educación para la salud

Abstracto

Impacts of Female Genital Mutilation on Women's Reproductive Health

Khaled Kasim, Samy Shaaban, Abed El-Aziz El Sadak and Haytham Hassan

Background: Female genital mutilation is common practice in Egypt with its drawback effects. Studies concerned with the impacts of that practice on women’s health in general and reproductive health in particular are sparse. Objective: To assess the impact of female genital mutilation (FGM) on some reproductive health factors among Egyptian women. Material and Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Alexandria governorate, Egypt. The study recruited 200 circumcised (case group) and 200 uncircumcised (control group) women attending maternity health care centers in the studied area. Interview questionnaires were used to collect data from the studied women. The questionnaire included sociodemographic and reproductive data related to FGM. Chi square tests were used to compare between the two groups with p value ≤ 0.05 as a significant difference. A multivariate logistic regression was also used to assess the effect of FGM on the studied reproductive health factors. Results: The study revealed statistically significant associations between FGM and adverse reproductive health. The risk of dyspareunia was high among circumcised women with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 3.9 (95% CI = 2.5- 6.1). There have also been significant high risks of recurrent vaginal infection (OR = 3.3; 95% 1.6-7.5), infertility (OR = 2.9; 95% CI = 1.5-5.9), and post partum hemorrhage (OR = 3.2; 95% CI = 1.2-8.3) among circumcised women. Conclusions: Women with FGM are significantly more likely to have adverse reproductive health than women without FGM. This finding is highly relevant for preventive work against this ancient practice.