"No pleasure, only pain": Exploratory research on sexual experience of excised women living in Switzerland

Objectives. - This study aims to explore the sexuality of excised women who live in a Western context. Methods. - Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted in Switzerland with women from different African countries who had undergone various types of excision. A thematic analysis was then carried out. Results. - Analysis highlighted that women interviewed perceived their body as "incomplete", "closed" and as no longer corresponding to the aesthetic value it had acquired in the country of origin through excision. Sexuality, strictly thought within the institution of marriage, is portrayed above all as painful, with feelings of tearing and breaking during sexual intercourse. Interestingly, sexual desire and pleasure are imagined by the interviewees as being mainly dependent on the clitoris, whereas the latter is itself perceived as absent from their bodies. Conclusions. - The primacy of the clitoris in women's sexuality reflects a medicalized and western vision internalized by the interviewees, which may entail a depreciative view of their own bodies and impact their sexuality. This study underlines the need for a contextualized approach that allows a deep understanding of sexual experiences of excised women and suggests ways of providing sexological appropriate care. (C) 2020 Sexologies. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.