Public health officials, however, are warning that some doctors and nurses are not prepared to deal with the physical and emotional complications associated with the procedure — sometimes called female genital mutilation or F.G.M./C — and in some cases may unintentionally traumatize the women they are trying to help.

“More and more health providers are going to be taking care of women who’ve undergone F.G.M./C,” said Dr. Nawal Nour, the director of the African Women’s Health Center in Boston, considered by many to be the leading clinic in the United States for women who have undergone genital cutting. Many of her patients, she said, describe “a humiliating time with health providers.”

Female genital cutting is an ancient tradition concentrated in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East. It is on the decline in some communities but still the norm in others, with more than 90 percent of women cut in Somalia and Guinea. The cutting can be as limited as a small incision or as extensive as an infibulation, which can involve removing the clitoris and repositioning the labia to form a seal with a small opening.

The practice remains a respected tradition in some cultures, linked to purity and community acceptance, though it has no medical benefits and is commonly described as excruciatingly painful, as it is usually conducted without anesthesia.

It is outlawed in United States, and it is also illegal to send a girl abroad to undergo the process. But the country has had a surge of African immigrants in the last two decades, at least some of whom experienced it before they arrived. And some families flout the law and send their daughters abroad to be cut.