Gynaecology
Female Circumcision
Female circumcision is a form of female genital mutilation (FGM) that is practiced in certain cultures and religions of Africa, Middle-east and Asia. These patients can present as girls or as adults. Female genital mutilation is a procedure that intentionally cause injury or alter the female genital organs for non-medical reasons and it has no medical benefits for girls or women. Female circumcision or female genital mutilation is not without short and long term complications. Female circumcision and female genital mutilation is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.1
During the procedure of female circumcision, part or all of the external genitalia is removed, including labia majora, labia minora,
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Which factors, channels, mechanisms and enzymes are involved?
Potassium plays a major role in creating resting membrane potential in excitable cells such as nerve cells, muscle and cardiac tissues. A study has shown that after an eleven day basic training of army soldiers, with a marked lack in potassium intake, their potassium levels had little to no difference in level and this can be contributed to the potassium balance which is controlled by the kidneys.
The kidneys excrete about 90% of the daily intake of potassium per day, which is around 80-100mmol/day. The potassium is freely filtered in the glomerulus.
In the proximal tubule 50 – 70% of the filtered potassium is reabsorbed. Potassium like sodium, follows fluid, thus the reabsorption in the proximal tubule is passive and research also suggest that there is no active component in the reabsorption of potassium in the proximal tubule. It is suspected that this reabsorption isn’t mainly due to diffusion transport but due to “solvent drag” due to potassium water interaction, but the trans cellular water transport is mainly through aquaporin-1 and aquaporin 7, thus the potassium transport would be labelled as “pseudo-solvent