Outpatients’ Perspectives on Problems and Needs Related to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Qualitative Study from Somaliland

Table 2

Background characteristics of participants.

	Woman 1	Woman 2	Woman 3	Woman 4	Woman 5	Woman 6	Woman 7
Age	35	23	35	30	20	23	40
Origin	Rural area	Rural area	Hargeisa	Hargeisa	Hargeisa	Berbera	Hargeisa
Education/job	Sales woman	No education, no job	No education, no job		No education, no job	No education, but is literate. no job	Quranic school, no job
Marital status	Married	Married	Widowed and remarried	Married	Unmarried	Unmarried	Widowed
Type of FGM/C	Pharaonic	Pharaonic	Pharaonic	Pharaonic	Pharaonic	Pharaonic	Pharaonic
Number and sex of children	1 son, 2 daughters	2 sons	1 daughter	1 daughter, 2 sons	—	—	2 sons, 2 daughters
Problems from FGM/C and reasons for visiting NAFIS	“… during the process of giving birth, the place between my anus and vagina tore open (fistula).” Also had infections.	“I was pregnant and the fetus died in my womb. This happened with 9 babies … I [also] have pain in my abdomen all the time.”	“I came to the centre in search of information on a cyst that I had ‘under’ here … I became too sick and was unable to walk …”	“I had an infection. When I was a girl, before marriage, I used to have very painful menses.”	“I had a painful infection … I had menstrual problems and pain in abdo-men.”	“I used to have very painful menstruations. My periods did not come out normally as the opening was so narrow.”	“I had pain in my abdomen. I used to have very painful menses … and I used to vomit.”