Bolgatanga (Upper East Region) - Girls who are circumcised are twice more likely to become sexually active and ten times more likely to become pregnant than their uncircumcised counterparts, a study conducted in the Bolgatanga District of the Upper East Region has revealed.
It said such girls may even have been pregnant while in school and run a 16 times higher risk of developing Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) due to high rates of vaginal infections than girls who have not been circumcised.
The study said out of an undisclosed number of circumcised schoolgirls examined in the area, 30 to 40 per cent of them had infections, including clamydia trachomatis, bacterial vaginosis and candidiasis, while 60 per cent of out-of-school girls were seen to have developed PID.
Another 25 per cent had difficulties getting pregnant due to complications attributable to female genital mutilation (FGM).
Dr. Kwasi Odoi-Agyarko, Director of Rural Help Integrated (RHI), an NGO providing reproductive health services in the Upper East Region, made these known at Bolgatanga on Wednesday when he presented the research findings conducted by the RHI and representatives of NGOs in the region on FGM persons.
He said girls and women who have been circumcised are five times more at risk of having pain when passing urine, and four times more at risk of bleeding during sexual intercourse than their uncircumcised counterparts.
Dr. Odoi-Agyarko said even though available evidence is not conclusive enough, information obtained from the study indicated that there was about 10 per cent death rate associated with the practice of FGM in the Bolgatanga District.
He observed that the exposure of girls to the FGM-related infections is fatal, and called on the Ministry of Health (MOH) to study the situation seriously and take appropriate action.
"A girl with no education and living in a rural part of the district has a 77 per cent chance of being excised, while her counterpart with secondary education living in an urban area has only 0.9 per cent chance of being cut," he added.Dr. Erasmus Agongo, Regional Director of Health Services, noted that FGM is of no benefit to society for it rather causes grievous harm to the health of women. He therefore urged chiefs and assembly members to help educate the people against the practice.
FGM is part of an initiation rite into womanhood in many parts of the Upper East Region, and young girls who have undergone it are deemed to be mature for sex.
