One in 10 British men admit to paying for sex, according to a new study unveiled by the Independent on Tuesday.
Prostitutes were sought most by professionals between the ages of 25 and 34 who binge drink and use drugs, based on a study of 6,108 men.
Roughly 11 percent of the surveyed men said they paid for sex at least once before and four percent said they did so in the last five years.
A higher number of sexual partners played a part, with 16 percent of men who have had five or more sex partners in the past years saying they frequented prostitutes.
Drinking heavily at least once a week or taking hard drugs in the last year seemed to make the men more likely to pay for sex, with six and 14 percent respectively saying they had paid a prostitute in the last five years.
"The picture that emerges does not necessarily fit the stereotype of the lonely older man," said Dr Cath Mercer, of UCL Infection and Population Health.
But the men, by and large, weren't seeking prostitutes in the U.K. Over 60 percent of the surveyed men said they had sex with prostitutes mostly in Asia and Europe. The men in the study were between the ages of 17 and 74.
"It could be down to opportunistic reasons such as a lads' weekend away, paid-for sex is available, it's something they wouldn't necessarily do at home, but in that situation it happens, but there are other reasons as well," Mercer said, according to the BBC.
Mercer said health and STD clinics should be urged to see paying for sex as a gateway to other risky behaviors of spreading infections, including having many partners without using protection.
"We heard from many men over the years that had paid for sex abroad and returned to Britain in a panic because they didn't know if they had an STI," Mercer said.
