telegraph.co.

uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11480359/FGM-Vaginal-piercing-to-be-recorded-as-female-genital-mutilation.html

Got a vaginal piercing? According to the NHS you're a victim of

FGM
By Radhika
Sanghani

2:54PM GMT 18 Mar 2015

Women with vaginal piercings will now be classed as victims of female genital mutilation (FGM), under
new NHS rules.
FGM is an illegal practice where women and girls genitalia are cut or mutilated in the name of tradition,
religion and culture.
But now any woman whose clitoris or labia has been pierced even if it was entirely her own decision - will be seen
as an act of FGM.
Most FGM involves either partially or totalling removing the clitoris, labia or narrowing the vaginal orifice by
repositioning the labia.
But piercings would come under a fourth type defined as: All other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for
non-medical purposes, for example: pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: '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.
The new data collection will help build a picture of the scale and the nature of the problem we are facing. We are
continually working on ways to improve and develop the NHS response to this terrible practice.
The move comes as a group of MPs have called for designer vagina surgery to also be classed as FGM.
A home affairs select committee released a report that said: We cannot tell communities in Sierra Leone and
Somalia to stop a practice which is freely permitted on Harley Street.
The MPs want a 2003 FGM law to be changed so that it specifically outlaws cosmetic surgery such as labiaplasty where a woman's labia are trimmed for aesthetic purposes - as "a criminal offence".
At the moment the phrasing on this issue remains ambiguous.
In the UK, around 137,000 women and girls have been affected by FGM and more than 20,000 are thought to be
at risk each year.
Campaigners have raised concerns that the new NHS rules could skew these figures and present an inaccurate
picture of FGM in the UK.