Men of commercial sex endanger Russian society

A young Russian scientist conducted a research of a very intimate group of the up-to-date society

Young scientist Anatoly Boiko, a student of post-graduate courses of the department of skin and sexually transmitted diseases from the Krasnoyarsk Medical Academy, finished a very original research at the end of the last year. The young man conducted a research of a rather intimate group of the up-to-date society, which receives very little public attention. The unique work was devoted to men involved in commercial sex. The research became very important in terms of studying certain peculiarities of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection.

Anatoly Boiko conducted his research in a specific social environment: “I work in a youth organization that fights against AIDS. I had to communicate with women of commercial sex, prostitutes in other words, within the scope of one of our prophylactic programs. Needless to say that this group is much more available and exposed in our society. I talked to pimps, and they gave me the address of a person, who owned an escorting firm that provided male escorting services too. This is how I managed to establish a contact with such men,” the researcher said in an interview with the Izvestia.

One may say that “men of commercial sex” is a secret social group, at least in Russia. If a stranger attempts to penetrate in this group and look into the matter, he or she might have severe problems.

It took Anatoly Boiko a year to finish his work: the young scientist questioned over 100 male prostitutes, conducted a medical examination of 50 men (several men were diagnosed with hepatitis B, C, syphilis and other diseases). The researcher discovered that 80 percent of men of commercial sex rendered their services to both male and female clients. The majority of Anatoly's “respondents” were young men between 17 and 33 years of age; the majority of them were under 20. A lot of male escorts practice unsafe sex. The risk of catching HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases is much higher at homosexual contacts than at heterosexual liaisons. 

As long as men of commercial sex “work” with both men and women, sexually transmitted diseases started penetrating in the conventional population from the homosexual environment. Anatoly Boiko also determined that the group of people, which uses the services of male prostitutes, is rather stagnant, although the group of male prostitutes themselves is changeable, as more and more “commercially-oriented men” decide to join them.

In addition, the research work allowed to make certain social conclusions too. Young men do not become prostitutes because of their wish to have as much sex as possible. They choose to do it because of unfavorable social situation. Such men usually come from small provincial towns, where it is impossible for them to find a well-paid job and get a good education. About one third of both male and female prostitutes take drugs on a regular basis: even very sexually active men run out of stamina at times. A male escort usually has up to 20 clients a week; the maximum figure, as Anatoly Boiko found out, was 48 people a week.