London - One in nine British men has paid for sex, according to a study.
And the likeliest groups to do so are 25-to-34-year-old single men in managerial or professional occupations, and those who have had a high number of partners.
Of the 6 000 men surveyed, 11 percent said they had paid for sex, with 3.6 percent admitting they had visited prostitutes in the past five years.
Lead scientist Dr Cath Mercer, from University College London, said: “The picture that emerges does not necessarily fit the stereotype of the lonely older man.
“In fact, men who pay for sex are more likely to be young professionals with many unpaid sexual partners. Many report other hedonistic and risky behaviours including heavy drinking and drug taking.”
Men who used prostitutes made up 15.6 percent of sexually transmitted infection diagnoses in the male population. They also reported an average of 31 lifetime sexual partners – more than twice the national average.
Dr Mercer said: “Men who pay for sex are evidently at high risk of infection, but this does not necessarily mean the STIs are spread through paid sex. Instead, we found these me engaging in other risky sexual behaviours, such as having overlapping partners.”
The findings come from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), conducted between 2010-2012 by researchers from UCL, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and NatCen Social Research.
A total of 6 108 men aged 16-74 answered questions about paying for sex in a computer-assisted self-interview.
The study focused on men as the proportion of women who reported paying for sex was only around 0.1 percent.
Among men who reported ever having paid for sex, 62.6 percent had done so outside the UK at least once - most commonly in Europe and Asia.
This may be driven by “hotspots” such as Amsterdam and Bangkok, said the researchers.
“Paying for sex may seem more permissible abroad, at a place removed from the day-to-day lives of most men,” Dr Mercer added.
“Paid sex can also be more readily available in certain areas so if men mention to their health professional that they will be travelling to destinations known for sex tourism, and especially those where the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections and HIV is high, then it would be opportunistic to have a conversation about safe sex.”
The research was published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. - Daily Mail