Background:In November 2008, the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS) commissioned the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services (NOKC) to conduct a systematic review about the consequences of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). The review would answer the question: What are the psychological, social and sexual consequences of FGM/C? Methods: We searched systematically for relevant literature in international scientific da- tabases, in databases of international organisations that are engaged in aspects related to FGM/C, and in reference lists of relevant reviews and included studies. We also communicated with professionals working with FGM/C related issues. We selected studies according to pre-specified criteria, appraised the methodolo- gical quality using checklists, and summarized the study level results using ta- bles and calculated effect estimates (risk ratio and mean difference) in addition to performing meta-analyses to estimate effect. We applied the instrument GRA- DE to assess the extent to which we could have confidence in the effect estima- tes. Results: We included and summarized results from 17 comparative
studies with a total of 12,755 participants from communities where FGM/C is practiced. All studies compared women with FGM/C to women without FGM/C. The evidence base was insufficient to draw conclusions about the psychological and social consequences of FGM/C. The effect estimates show that compared to women without FGM/C women with FGM/C are more likely
to experience 1) pain during intercourse, 2) reduced sexual satisfaction, and 3)reduced sexual desire. However, the quality of the evidence was too low to draw
conclusions about a causal relationship between FGM/C and psychological, social and sexual consequences. Conclusion: There is a paucity of high quality
evidence regarding the consequences of FGM/C. While the evidence base is insufficient to draw causal conclusions about the consequences of FGM/C, our results show that women with FGM/C experience pain and reduction in sexual satisfaction and desire compared to women without FGM/C.