News and Events => Science & Medical News => Topic started by: Shana A on August 10, 2010, 08:49:20 AM Return to Full Version

Title: Female circumcision victims seek out Colo. doctor
Post by: Shana A on August 10, 2010, 08:49:20 AM
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSMnS303G8Z5t4-z8cXMviLcyO6QD9HGI8S80 (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSMnS303G8Z5t4-z8cXMviLcyO6QD9HGI8S80)

Female circumcision victims seek out Colo. doctor

By CATHERINE TSAI (AP) – 3 hours ago

TRINIDAD, Colo. — This picturesque southern Colorado town known for decades as the sex-change capital of the world — thousands of gender-reassignment operations have been performed here — is becoming a beacon for victims of female genital mutilation.

Dr. Marci Bowers has performed about two dozen reconstructive surgeries on mostly African born women victimized as children by the culturally driven practice of female circumcision. Bowers is believed to be one of the few U.S. doctors performing the operation.

Bowers, who underwent a gender reassignment operation in the 1990s at age 40, said she relates to what her mutilation patients describe as a loss of identity, of not feeling whole.