Clitoraid-assisted FGM patient, 33, celebrates first orgasm!

Maro 23 2010, :
FGM to become ‘a horrific, historical fluke’ as word of reversal surgery spreads
LAS VEGAS, Mar. 23



A 33-year-old victim female genital mutilation (FGM) was ecstatic when she made an after-midnight phone call to Clitoraid head patient coordinator Nadine Gary in mid March. “I was feeling so good, I didn’t want to let go at first,” she told Gary. “It was a strange sensation, and then suddenly I was overtaken by this incredible feeling that lasted several seconds! I had my first orgasm!”

Mariame (whose last name is omitted here to protect her privacy), an African immigrant, had undergone clitoral reconstructive surgery in Trinidad, Colo., nine months earlier. The procedure was performed by Clitoraid’s head surgeon, Dr. Marci Bowers, who volunteers her services to help FGM victims.

In childhood, Mariame and millions of other women were forced to endure the ancestral tradition of clitoral cutting, an act of extreme cruelty typically performed on little girls by their female relatives. Anesthesia is rarely used and the pain is excruciating.

“Over 135 million women and teenagers worldwide are currently living through the consequences of this horrific act of brutality,” Gary said in a statement released this morning. “They can’t experience the physical pleasures of relationships that most women take for granted, and many of them also feel inadequate and ashamed of their plight. Clitoraid wants to help as many of these victims as possible, and to make FGM obsolete by offering and publicizing the surgery that reverses the damage. When you can restore what was taken away, there’s no point in doing the horrible deed in the first place.”

Las Vegas-based Clitoraid, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2004 by Rael, founder and spiritual leader of the International Raelian Movement.

“He wanted FGM victims like Mariame to receive the surgery they need to achieve sexual pleasure and regain their sense of feminine dignity,” Gary said. “That’s why Clitoraid is currently building a hospital in Burkina Faso, West Africa, for the sole purpose of offering the surgery and related therapy to FGM victims free of charge. Dr. Bowers and other volunteers will take part in the hospital’s opening next January.”
But the surgery alone is not enough, Gary said.

“We have to teach them how to get their sense of pleasure back and to overcome their inhibitions,” she explained. “That’s why therapy is equally important. At Clitoraid, we realize that mind and body have to be treated together, so we’re very grateful to Dr. Larry Ashley, a university professor and sexual trauma counselor who volunteered to give individual sessions to each of our patients.”
She added that Mariame had also benefited from a fun, educational workshop inspired by sexual therapist Dr. Betty Dodson.

“The workshop helped her recover her clitoral sensation and overcome her shyness about sex,” Gary explained. “And it helped her accept and welcome the look of her newly repaired clitoris and to trust that it really could give her pleasure now.”

Also helpful to Mariame were vibrators and other sensual toys donated by Clitoraid’s new partner, Good Vibrations, an adult toys retailer based in San Francisco. “Vibrators are instrumental for helping FGM reversal patients recover clitoral sensation,” Gary said. “They reestablish nerve pathways, something the patients can’t achieve solely through finger stimulation.”