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Many men who pay for sex are either married or have partners

02/Oct/2006: Half of men who pay for sex in U.K are married or have partners, according to new study conducted by the Glasgow’s Sandyford Initiative.

Analysis of data on 2,500 men, who attended a sexual health clinic, showed that one in ten who attended the clinic had paid for sex. Of those who had paid for sex, 25% said that they visit prostitutes regularly, 43% of them had partners and 20% had some kind of sexually transmitted infection.

Researchers who carried out this study said that the above figures could be an under-estimate of the actual number of men who pay for sex. More than 50% of men who admitted paying for sex had done so while they were abroad, with another 40% admitting that they had paid for it locally. 2% of men covered in the study said that they paid for sex both in U.K and abroad.

Unprotected vaginal sex was more common in men who paid for sex aboard, when compared to those who paid for sex in U.K and unprotected oral sex was common in both the cases. 56% of those men who had unprotected sex with prostitutes said that they had a partner.

The results of this study suggest that health initiatives for sex workers should be reviewed more seriously. None of the men with sexually transmitted diseases, who took part in the survey, had HIV, but rather suffered from other STDs like gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis.

Mr. Peter Baker, chief executive of the Men’s Health Forum, stressed that the number of men who pay for sex was likely to be much lower in general population, when compared to the group of men who attended the sexual health clinic. However, he added that the figures confirm a rising trend of paid sex in the population.

He said that increasing instability and fragility of relationships and high levels of stress, anxiety and depression in men could be blamed for this rising trend. According to him, greater access to sexually explicit material and the decreasing taboo about paying for sex, might have led to the increase in the number of men who pay for sex.

Mr. Baker stressed on the need to educate men and sex workers on safer sex, as it is essential in today’s context, where we will have to acknowledge that more men will pay for sex and they need to know more about protected sex and how to access sexual health services, to get their problems addressed. The results of this study appear in the journal ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections’.

K Siva

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