Reshaping the global health agenda: female genital cutting

F emale genital cutting (FGC) is described by the World Health Organization as ‘all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons’ (1). Its practice is common in at least 29 countries across Africa and the Middle East (2) currently affecting 125 million girls and women worldwide. Due to globalization, specifically increasing trends in migration, instances of FGC are increasingly common in the developed world. For example, 137,000 girls residing in the UK in 2011 were found to have undergone FGC (3). Despite this, the increasing trend of FGC in the developed world has not been uniformly met with suitable mechanisms to support these patients. With increased societal stigma and grave misinformation, funding for FGC support structures has largely ignored sensitive issues surrounding FGC, for example, the social and economic structures that propagate abuse against women, such as poverty (4). Without promoting dialogue and tackling FGC on a broader level, any progress we make to tackle FGC will be stunted. In this article, we aim to briefly summarise methods to tackle FGC and underline any improvements that can help better support those at risk or who have undergone FGC.