How surgery restores pleasure for female cut victims

Whenever other women talked about their sexual escapades, Naomi* always wondered what an orgasm felt like. The possibility of getting one was robbed from her when she was put through female genital mutilation (FGM) at age 14.

Now at the entrance of the Karen Hospital in Nairobi, she stands at the door of opportunity that may restore what was violently taken away from her. Clitoraid, a non-profit organisation based in the US, has pitched tent at the hospital to offer clitoris restorative surgeries for free.

The Kenya Demographic Health Survey of 2014 shows that 21 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 have undergone FGM.

Nine per cent underwent the most severe form where the genital area is sewn shut after being cut off. To restore the clitoris which is normally 11 centimetres long, with only five per cent cut off even in the worst case of FGM, the remaining part of the clitoris which is buried in the body is brought to the surface.

The restoration of sexual pleasure is possible because the entire clitoris is sensory, not just the amputated portion. “Sensation is lost because the amputated portion retracts and gets covered by scar tissue. The clitoris is shortened but not removed. The restoration surgery exposes the clitoral stump.

Then, with plastic surgery, we are able to bring the exposed portion to the surface and even create new labia minora using the surrounding skin. The newly  exposed portion is then able function,” said Dr Marci Bowers, Clitoraid’s gynaecological surgeon, who has operated on the women with the help of Kenyan plastic surgeon Dr Abdullahi Adan.

“Women orgasm for the first time in their lives after this,” she added. By Wednesday last week, more than 20 women had been operated on at Mama Lucy Hospital in Nairobi, and more women queued silently at the Karen Hospital waiting for surgery. -