Benefits of multidisciplinary care for excised women

Aim. To present the results of multidisciplinary care model for excised women. Patients and methods. Qualitative retrospective study on multidisciplinary care between 2007 and 2012 within Excised Women Care Unit. Patients are seen by three specialists: a gynecologist obstetrician, a psychotrauma therapist and anthropologist, a psycho-sexologist. The Unit welcomes any excised woman, whatever are her demands. Women wishing for a clitoridian surgery meet systematically the three specialists. The study covers a population of 270 women, most of them aged between 18 and 40 years. Results. The presented results are related to women having asked for clitoridian surgery. Two outstanding results come out from multidisciplinary care: few women finally go for surgery, and a high rate of patients wishing for surgery present a sexual trauma other than female genital mutilation/cutting. Conclusion. The importance of the psychotraumatic and interpersonal dimension (marital familial) in the problems presented by the patients indicates that the "repair" of excision cannot be reached by the sole surgery and requires a medical, psychological and sexological management. (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.