#Amsterdam #UMC #starts #research #reconstruction #surgery #circumcised #women
ANP
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 15:47
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Elvira Baan
editor Domestic
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Elvira Baan
editor Domestic
The Amsterdam UMC will investigate whether women who have been circumcised and therefore experience psychological or sexual problems can undergo reconstruction surgery. Plastic surgeons and gynecologists want the operation to be fully reimbursed for all complaints if it turns out that the operation helps.
“The operation is currently not reimbursed for women with psychological complaints,” says lead researcher and gynecologist Emmy van den Boogaard. This does happen with physical complaints. With the research she is now starting, Van den Boogaard hopes that she can also help women who have mental complaints.
It turned out last month research by UNICEF that the number of women undergoing circumcision is still increasing worldwide. Figures from the Pharos expertise center show that there are approximately 41,000 circumcised women living in the Netherlands, who have often fled from countries where circumcisions occur.
According to UNICEF, most circumcised women and girls live in African countries: 144 million. In Asia the number is 80 million and in the Middle East 6 million women have been circumcised. Pharos writes that it depends on the tradition in the country whether girls between 0 and fifteen years old are circumcised.
Female circumcision comes in different forms. From scratching the clitoris, cutting away the visible part of the clitoris, to cutting away or joining the inner and outer labia.
With these forms of mutilation there is a high risk of complications such as urinary tract infections, problems with sexual intercourse or childbirth, and psychological problems.
In the Netherlands, female circumcision carries a maximum prison sentence of 12 years. It is also punishable if circumcision takes place abroad.
“During a repair operation, we remove the scar tissue and return the vulva as much as possible to its original state. If necessary, we bring the clitoris out more,” says plastic surgeon Müjde Özer, who performs the operation.
Women want to undergo this surgery for various reasons. One group experiences physical or sexual complaints and the other group mainly wants to recover from what was done to them.
The doctors notice that it is important for many women to feel more complete as women after the operation. “Some women still remember the circumcision. For others, their mutilation makes them feel incomplete, because a part of them has been cut away. Through the operation they hope to regain their sense of self-determination,” says Van den Boogaard .
According to the law, the operation may not yet be reimbursed for the mental consequences, because previous research did not include psychological complaints. “For women who do not experience any physical complaints, it has never been properly investigated whether the operation is effective and safe. That is why we now want to find out whether the operation is a good way to combat their complaints,” says Van den Boogaard.
Reimburse
The researchers are therefore following a 2020 advice from the Dutch Healthcare Institute. It stated that amending the law to make compensation possible is certainly worth considering, if research shows that the operation is good for mental well-being.
Outgoing Minister Dijkstra for Medical Care says that she considers female genital mutilation an important topic: “If research shows that an operation helps against psychological complaints and can be performed safely and with good results, I will look at how this can be reimbursed. “
Yadira Roggeveen of the Dutch Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology is pleased that more extensive research is being conducted into the recovery operation. She emphasizes that the role of gynecologists in the Netherlands goes much further. They provide aftercare for women who have been circumcised and work with partners to combat female circumcision in the Netherlands.
