The medicalisation of female genital cutting: harm reduction or social norm? Nina Van Eekert 1,2,3 , Veerle Buffel 1,2 , Sara De Bruyn 1,2 and Sarah Van de Velde 3 1 Centre for Population, Family and Health, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium 2 Faculty of Social Sciences, Centre for Population Family & Health, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium 3 Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, International Centre for Reproductive Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Abstract Today, female genital cutting is increasingly practised by trained healthcare providers. While opposition to medicalised female genital cutting (FGC) is strong, little is known about the underlying motivation for this medicalisation trend in practising communities. We formulated three hypotheses based on medicalisation theories. The medicalisation of FGC: (i) is stratified and functions as a status symbol, (ii) functions as a harm-reduction strategy to conform to social norms while reducing health risks and (iii) functions as a social norm itself. Conducting multilevel multinomial regressions using the 2005, 2008 and 2014 waves of the Egyptian Demographic Health Survey, we examined the relationship between the mother’s social position, the normative context in which she lives and her decision to medicalise her daughter’s cut, compared to the choice of a traditional or no cut. We found that an individual woman’s social position, as well as the FGC prevalence and percentage of medicalisation at the governorate level, was associated with a mother’s choice to medicalise her daughter’s cut. Further research on factors involved in decision-making on the medicalisation of FGC is recommended, as an in-depth understanding of why the decision is made to medicalise the FGC procedure is relevant to both the scientific field and the broader policy debate. Keywords: female genital cutting, women’s social position, social norms, medicalisation, Egypt, multilevel analyses Introduction Today, female genital cutting (FGC), 1 which comprises a wide range of procedures involving total or partial removal of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons, is more regularly prac- tised by trained healthcare providers (medicalisation) (WHO 2010). While opposition to medi- calised FGC is strong, mainly based on the assumption that medicalisation counteracts the abandonment of FGC (WHO 2010), little is known about the underlying motivation behind this medicalisation trend in practicing communities. 2 © 2020 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA Sociology of Health & Illness Vol. 0 No. 0 2020 ISSN 0141-9889, pp. 1–16 doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.13153