i'd read about female genital mutilation in magazines and stuff, but i'd never actually known anyone who'd suffered through it until recently. and really, i wish i'd never met her, b/c... what a thing to go through! this lady is my OB patient. when she warned me that she was not 'normal' b/c she had a 'circumcision' i was like... huh? i think in the second following her statement, a blank look overtook my face while confusion ran through my head. after all, when you say 'circumcision' in the u.s. you're generally referring to males. it wasn't until she said that in somalia all the girls have to have their genitals stitched to prevent sex before marriage that i knew what she was talking about. it's interesting, though. she told me she wanted an 'uncircumcision' so she could be 'normal.' it's so sad. most ppl in our office cringe at the thought of the pain she must've felt when she was just 10 years old. but i was a little surprised that she thought it was abnormal too, since that's how she was raised. she seemed very self-conscious about it. she said she didn't want me to be shocked... and she even told my nurse about it, b/c she didn't want the nurse to be shocked either. i think it's even sadder that women (and maybe men, too?) there find it abnormal but don't have the ability/strength to stop it. on top of that, she yelped during the entire pelvic exam. and let me tell you, i have small hands. i'm s'posed to wear size 5.5 sterile gloves, which aren't even readily available all the time... that's how small they are. the fact that i couldn't even easily do a pelvic exam on her makes me wonder how the hell that baby is going to be delivered. but S made a good point: in somalia they deliver vaginally, and ALL the women have been 'circumcised' there, so it shouldn't really be a problem. still, every time i think about her, my heart goes out to her.