Women in Britain with genital piercings are being classed as having suffered
female genital mutilation (FGM), it has emerged.
The NHS compulsory reporting regulations are intended to protect women and girls from the sometimes fatal practice of intentionally altering or causing injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985, though recent studies suggest some 170,000 women and girls have undergone the procedure, while the NSPCC says 70 women a month seek treatment for the crime.
But under a directive which follows the
World Health Organisation's (WHO) definition of FGM, the term also applies to any women who has
consented to having her clitoris or labia pierced for fashion or sexual reasons, meaning medical professionals will be obliged to record such adornments as such.