Female genital mutilation practice, associated factors, and its consequences on women’s reproductive health in Senegal

Female genital mutilation (FGM) practice is unhygienic and unhealthy traditional practices which have affected girls and women’s health adversely for all-time, and such practice is prevalent in many African countries. This study intended to examine factors associated with the FGM prevalence, attitudes toward the discontinuation of the practice, and consequences of FGM practice on reproductive health in terms of sexual transmitted infections/symptoms (STIs/STSs) among women of reproductive ages in Senegal. To fulfill the study objective on factors associated the prevalence of FGM and attitudes toward the continuation of FGM practice, the 2019 Senegal Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data sets were used based on binary logit and multinomial logit regression models. The results show that rural areas, married women, women of Muslim religion, Poular women, women of lower education and lower wealth, and women who were never exposed to social media reported a higher prevalence rate of FGM and were more likely to support continuation of FGM practice. To fulfill the research goal on consequences of FGM practice on STIs/STSs, the 2010 – 2011 DHS was employed because the 2019 DHS did not collect data on STIs/STSs. FGM practice was associated with lower knowledge about STIs/STSs and higher prevalence of STIs/STSs. Our findings suggest that education promotion, poverty reduction, rural development, and dissemination of the adverse consequences of FGM practice could help reduce FGM practices. These findings could have important implications for achieving the sustainable development goals.