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Female Genital Cutting (FGC) is increasingly being performed by trained health professionals. International, national, and local institutions strongly oppose this medicalization trend, arguing that the involvement of health-care providers in the performance of FGC will counteract efforts to eliminate the practice. However, no empirical research to date has confirmed or refuted this claim. Therefore, it remains unclear how the medicalization of FGC relates to changes in the prevalence of the practice. In the current paper, we aim to fill this gap in the literature by examining the association between this medicalization trend and the risk of FGC. We focus on Egypt because of its high medicalization and prevalence rates and its unique history of FGC legislation. We performed a discrete-time event-history regression analysis combined with governorate fixed effects using the Egyptian Demographic Health Surveys from 2005, 2008, and 2014 (N = 49,273 daughters clustered within 29,810 mothers). Our results show that increasing medicalization rates coexist with decreasing prevalence rates. This effect is particularly pronounced in a context where a substantial number of cuts were medicalized (estimated at 40% and above). This effect is significantly more pronounced in higher educated mothers. Our study thus shows that the medicalization of FGC can coincide with decreasing prevalence rates of FGC. Medicalization of FGC may take place in a context where an awareness of the health hazards related to FGC is more pronounced, thereby also discouraging the practice as a whole. In addition, the medicalization of FGC may make the practice more individualized and therefore reduce the incentives for FGC. • The FGC medicalization trend coincides with decreases in FGC prevalence in Egypt. • A sharp decline in FGC prevalence is established in the youngest age groups. • Increases in the medicalization of FGC reduce the risk of FGC even further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Egypt is one of three countries where half of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) victims live, despite its ban. To inform policy on the awareness of this ban and the impact of other interventions, this study sought to assess FGM/C-related knowledge, perceptions, and determinants of disagreement with FGM/C and circumcision of future daughters among university students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire in a random sample of 502 male and female students in Menoufia University between September and December 2017. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Students were 21.0 ± 1.6 years old; 270 (54.0%) were males, 291 (58.0%) were non-medical students, and 292 (58.2%) were rural residents. 204 (46.7%) students were not aware of the ban and their main source of information about FGM/C was educational curricula or health education sessions (162, 37.0%). Only 95 (19.0%) students had good knowledge about FGM/C. 217 (43.3%) students were neutral towards discontinuing FGM/C. 280 (56.2%) students disagreed with FGM/C. 296 (59.3%) students disagreed with circumcision of their future daughters; independent determinants of this outcome were awareness of the ban (ORa = 1.9) and disagreement with: FGM/C preserves females' virginity (ORa = 5.0), has religious basis (ORa = 3.8), makes females happier in marriage (ORa = 3.5), enhances females' hygiene (ORa = 2.1). Conclusions: Knowledge about FGM/C and its ban is low, even in this educated population. FGM/C is still misperceived as a religious percept. Maximizing the utilization of health education and curricula might help increase anti-FGM/C attitudes among university students with neutral perceptions and initiate the much-needed momentum for elimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]