BigShinyThing

The World Health Organisation estimates that some 3m young girls are subjected to female circumcision each year and that, in total, between 100m and 140m women have undergone it. Surgery to reopen the vagina and mitigate the medical complications of genital cutting have long been available. But in Burkina Faso, where as many as 75% of women have thought to have their clitorises cut, a relatively new procedure is being offered.

Clitoral reconstruction surgery aims to restore sexual sensation to women who have been mutilated. The technique is possible because most of the clitoris resides inside the body. Surgeons can pull out this remaining tissue and stitch it the external skin. Unfortunately the technique used does not restore sexual sensation completely if the pressure-sensitive tip of the clitoris has been removed.

A year after it was first introduced, more than 100 women have elected to undergo the procedure, according to Michel Akotionga of the Yalgado Ouedraogo University Hospital in Ouagdougou.

However, unlike surgery to reopen the vagina, which is free in Burkina Faso, clitoris reconstruction costs about $150 in a public hospital and up to $400 in a private clinic.

Pierre Foldes, who started pioneering the reconstruction method some 25 years ago (it’s apparently taken ’till now to popularise it …) has now trained 15 surgeons to use the technique in France.

As The Economist rightly points out:

While a partial cure is better than nothing, prevention would be best of all.

Wired reports:

Genetically altered mice discovered accidentally at the Wistar Institute in Pennsylvania have the seemingly miraculous ability to regenerate like a salamander, and even regrow vital organs. Researchers systematically amputated digits and damaged various organs of the mice, including the heart, liver and brain, most of which grew back.

The results stunned scientists because if such regeneration is possible in this mammal, it might also be possible in humans.

The researchers also made a remarkable second discovery: When cells from the regenerative mice were injected into normal mice, the normal mice adopted the ability to regenerate. And when the special mice bred with normal mice, their offspring inherited souped-up regeneration capabilities.

Obviously this is exciting news for the medical sciences. Maybe it’s just me, but the phrase ‘most of which grew back’ adds a certain Pet Sematary zombie flavour to the otherwise Utopian vision of a world free of permanent physical damage.