[Reconstruction of ritual female genital mutilation]

This review discusses female genital mutilation (FGM), which is a culturally founded ritual of unknown origin. The definition is intentional altering or injuring the female genitals for non-medical reasons. The WHO estimates, that more than 200 million women have sequelae from FGM. Acute compli-ca-tions range from haemorrhage and infection to death, while the most common chronic complications are vulvar pain, problems with micturition and childbirth, recurrent infec-tions, dysmenorrhoea, and dyspareunia. Favourable surgical techniques are available. Hitherto, these techniques are limited to certain types of FGM.