information:highlighting
Variation

The WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA issued a joint statement in 1997 defining FGM as "all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons". The procedures vary according to the ethnicity and individual practitioners; during a 1998 survey in Niger, women responded with over 50 terms when asked what was done to them. Translation problems are compounded by the women's confusion over which type of FGM they experienced, or even whether they experienced it. Studies have suggested that survey responses are unreliable. A 2003 study in Ghana found that in 1995 four percent said they had not undergone FGM, but in 2000 said they had, while 11 percent switched in the other direction. In Tanzania in 2005, 66 percent reported FGM, but a medical exam found that 73 percent had undergone it. In Sudan in 2006, a significant percentage of infibulated women and girls reported a less severe type.

In March 2017, an international FGM expert meeting titled was organized by three universities : the University of Geneva, Université libre de Bruxelles and Université de Montréal, in collaboration with the Department of Reproductive Health and Research of the WHO. Additional support and funding was received from the Swiss Network against Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), and the Geneva University Hospitals. It was titled "Management and prevention of female genital mutilation/cutting: sharing data and experiences, improving collaboration". The 98 participants came from four continents and 23 countries. Among them were physicians, social scientists, policymakers, and activists. They were invited to respond to an online descriptive and explorative survey on hot topics. It included two parts, the first one was intended for all participants, the second one only for clinicians. The results were the following:

The majority of the participants thinks that the FGM/C classification proposed by the WHO and other UN agencies in 2007 should be revised. They further agree with the legal prohibition of both reinfibulation and ritual pricking and express worries about the dangers represented by the lawfulness of both female genital cosmetic surgeries and male circumcision in the discredit of prevention campaigns against FGM/C. However, participants had different views about whether or not female genital cosmetic surgeries should be banned and whether or not regular vulvar examination should be carried out in female children.