Although the severity of the effects on health varies according to the degree of mutilation, the practice is a major health problem. Immediate effects include shock, retention of urine and of menstrual blood with attendant infections, and infections resulting from the operation itself, which is often performed with unsterilized and inadequate equipment. Short term complications include tetanus, septicaemia, haemorrhages, cuts in the urethra, bladder, vaginal walls and anal sphincter. Later the woman may suffer scars that hinder walking for life, cyst formation, fistulas, sterility, and pelvic and chronic urinary infections. Almost all sexually mutilated women have hugely increased agony and difficulties in labour, incision of the vulva generally being necessary. The higher danger in childbirth greatly increases the chance of premature death.
The custom of sexual mutilation of young girls is a violation of the right of the child to be protected from bodily harm and mutilation. There is no religious basis for female sexual mutilation, and the practice is found in communities of different religions, namely Muslim, Christian and polytheistic communities. The practice is rooted in cultural heritage as a way to prepared girls for adulthood. The cultural importance can be so great that a girl who does not undergo the operation at puberty could bring shame to her family, and could be consider unclean, impure, and probably a prostitute; she might never be considered marriageable and thus would have no future in her own community. A girl who does undergo the operation, however, would probably have poorer health and would never be able to enjoy sexual relations (to a similar degree as uncut women) with her husband when she does marry.