The Kindest Cut: New Surgery Restores Function for Victims of FGM

[Lyric]

The Kindest Cut
In Colorado, a surgeon helps restore feeling—and so much more—to victims of female genital mutilation.


Sila, a patient at Mt. San Rafael Hospital in Trinidad Colorado, prepares for her clitoroplastal reversal
surgery (left). The surgery, (center) performed by Dr. Marci Bowers, reverses the effect of female genital
mutilation and attempts to rebuild the clitoris, eliminate pain and restore pleasure. After the surgery, (right)
Sila and Dr. Bowers embrace.

One day, when Sila Folow was an 8-year-old girl living in Mali, four elderly women held her down on the dirt floor of an outhouse and, in keeping with local tradition, used a sharp blade to cut out her clitoris and most of her labia. Her grandmother and other villagers held a celebration. Sila, bleeding and in terrible pain, could not walk for weeks. Like millions of other African girls who are forced to undergo female genital mutilation—a ritual many women say is intended to ensure that they grow up to become sexually passive wives who will not stray from their husbands—Sila never recovered. She eventually moved to New York, married, and had two children. But she was reluctant to have sex with her husband. It hurt, and the scarring made it impossible for her to feel pleasure.

This May, Sila, now 38 years old, underwent a simple but profound operation to undo the past. She traveled to Trinidad, Colorado, where Dr. Marci Bowers, a gynecological and pelvic surgeon, has recently begun to perform "clitoralplasty" or "female circumcision reversals" on African women. A relatively new procedure, it reshapes the anatomy and, in 80 percent of patients, restores pleasurable sensation. "I want my womanhood back," Sila told Bowers when she first spoke to the surgeon about the operation. "I just want to know it's there. To have the feeling that I can fight against this culture."

Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/id/218692/page/1

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This is such fantastic news. I hope more victims are able to take advantage of this procedure. I also hope that insurance companies realize that this is NOT "cosmetic." This is restoring function, not just appearance.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[DontTreadOnMe]

2. It's hard to imagine

a culture that would do this to their own children. You would think... that this "custom" would become exposed and the families educated about the potential health risks.

As far as health insurance covering this new procedure... we can't even get insurers to cover the itemized things they say they already cover!

[get the red out]

3. The evils done to females in this world are hideous

I am so glad someone is trying medically to help them. Women and girls are so often victims of religion and tradition, in fact, I despise both those words because of the victimization of females they cause. It seems there are people who don't see horrible things done to women and girls as human rights violations, but they certainly are. If some misguided culture systematically cut boys dicks off to make sure they never experienced the evils of sexual pleasure, and left them to bleed on the filthy dirt floor, there would be much more of an outcry.

Any culture that causes such harm needs an over-haul. And no, I don't mean "bombing them". There is generally someone that shows up who takes any criticism of another culture as a call for mass murder. Also, I know our culture is shitty in many ways, but will not accept any moral equivalence between high heals etc... and genital mutilation, and yes, since Western culture doesn't sexually mutilate girls we do have room to talk, and George Bush was not representative of all Americans' attitudes regarding other human beings, so he is no excuse for us remaining closed-mouthed regarding all atrocities not of US manufacture. Just covering all the arguments against paying any attention to harm done to women throughout the world.

I might still be called a hate-monger for being against misogyny in other cultures, but don't really care.

[Triana]

5. HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES is exactly what this is -

no one calls it that, because 'it only happens to women' (who are still considered cattle, at best, in many parts of the world)

[get the red out]

9. You are exactly right!

I am so tired of these abuses being pushed aside.

[Triana]

4. Insurance companies will consider this optional, cosmetic, unnecessary...

...I bet.

[Lyric]

10. And if they do, they should be sued

into fucking oblivion.

:grr:

[Starry Messenger]

6. What a wonderful doctor.

I wish I was a billionare and could send all the women who need this to Colorado.

[Triana]

11. She's an Angel, IMO. n/t

[Warpy]

7. Dr. Bowers is a true giant

She's turned Trinidad into a center for sexual reassignment surgery. That she's branching out beyond the transgendered to the sexually mutilated is no surprise to me. She also has a thriving OB-Gyn practice.

I'm an inveterate snob and there are few people who awe me into silence. Dr. Bowers is one of those few people.

[Morning Dew]

8. Trinidad was already a center for SRS.

Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Stanley Biber and Mt. San Rafael Hospital.

I'm so glad that Dr. Bowers has taken on his practice and expand into new areas as well.

She seems like a real gem.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. Another site.

www.clitoraid.org

Run by Rael, head of a UFO cult. I have no idea if they are actually helping women or not.

[niyad]

13. some good news for a change about this horrible subject. thank you for posting.

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. Good news at this barbaric practice pops up periodically. In one African country, I forget which,

The women who perform the genital mutilation just stopped. They decided to abandon the practice en masse.

[Touchdown]

This is fantastic. I would be for foreign aid money to go for this too.

Lord knows we missed so many opportunities like Darfur, Rwanda, etc. For human rights sake, this needs to be funded.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. Wonderful article. Thank you for posting and K&R.

For all the atrocities in the world it does good to see a positive once in a while.

Thank you one more time for sharing this article.

[DemBones DemBones]

15. Good news for women has been rare the

past couple of years. Thanks, Lyric, for this post. K & R

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. +1000

[BrklynLiberal]

18. I am sure the insurance companies will not pay for this and I hope they get their asses sued.

and lose.

She is a wonderful doctor...

[Vidar]

19. K&R

[harry_pothead]

20. That is great. I think I'll stop reading the news for tonight and go to bed on a high note

[voc]

21. Good News! Thanks for posting. nt