Clinical management of female genital mutilation must be handled with understanding, compassion.

Canadian obstetricians, gynecologists and family practitioners are not allowed to perform female genital mutilation (FGM), but because of immigration patterns it is still a reality for them. Dr. André Lalonde, an Ottawa obstetrician-gynecologist who serves as executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, offers some practical suggestions from his own experience for physicians unaccustomed to seeing patients who have experienced FGM.