A friend of mine told me that years ago she had considered the possibility of practicing prostitution for a while while she was studying. Those were the times of the openness and the longed-for sexual freedom in Spain, and the practice of sex, even for payment, seemed to be a liberating option . “Luckily I didn’t get to do it,” she told me in horror after investigating the reality of prostitution.

This is the glamour of the hell in which some fall and to which the great majority are pushed and forced. In our days of social networks, millions of websites with sexual and pornographic content are increasingly producing sexual exchanges of all kinds including sexting, sending images of sexual content or nudity and flirting by many teenagers with the exposure of their body in digital media reaching some to obtain economic benefits for it, entering easily into pornography, possible gateway to prostitution .

The merit of prostitution has been, in many cases, to camouflage its psychosocial effects with the packaging of a marketing associated with glamour.

The psychological and social effects of prostitution

The data I am presenting comes from serious research and scientific work. Let’s see the reality of this false glamour of prostitution.

1. Exposure to abuse situations

86% of women who end up in prostitution are physically, mentally and verbally abused and/or were sexually abused in their childhood

2. Violence, abuse and sexual degradation

Some studies have found that women in prostitution are up to 200 times more likely to die a violent death than the normal population.

3. Presence of child trafficking

The average age of initiation into prostitution is between 13 and 14 years (US data). The overall and majority picture is of women and girls who are abused and sexually exploited from childhood and who are deterred by a mixture of violence and the use of apparent glamour.

4. Women’s vulnerability

90% of the women in prostitution in Spain are imported as merchandise from Eastern, African, Eastern or South American countries . Most are victims of poverty, some are illiterate. This condition is not only a cause of their victimization but also a consequence of being trapped and unable to escape. Many do not speak our language after several years here.

5. Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Logical in an activity where there is an average of 20-30 sexual relations per day, where many clients ask for unprotected sex and where the exchange of body fluids is inevitable, including saliva, urine, semen and faeces.

6. Harmful health effects

Gynecological disorders, chronic pelvic pain and forced abortions are common among women who have up to 30 sexual relations a day and we can get an idea of the delicacy of sex buyers. In Germany, sex with women up to 6 months pregnant, even in a group, is very standardised, legal and advertised as a service, with serious consequences not only for the woman but obviously for the foetus.

7. Eating disorders

People who fall into prostitution live with no schedule, who may “work” all night and get up at noon or when a client arrives, which leads them to sneak in between services and consume caffeine or other stimulants without having a regular breakfast, lunch or dinner time.

8. Alcohol and other drug addiction

These addictions allow them to survive the “anaesthetised” situation as well as allowing greater control by the mafias.

9. 75% are violated

Extreme physical abuse is suffered by most. 95% are attacked and physical aggressions or forced abortions are inherent to their activity , something normalized and banalized by many: “if they are there it will be because they like it”.

10. Psychological abuse

Insults and humiliations are part of this world where men pay for using and humiliating a woman . The self-esteem of a woman who is abused and insulted every day ends up being completely destroyed.

11. Depression, anxiety, irritability, and insomnia are common

Anxiety and depression are a logical consequence of the situation of lack of protection, abuse and violence and are often the basis from which other symptoms and disorders develop.

12. Pathological relationships

Due to the stigma and reality of prostitution , there is a distancing from families that is often surrounded by lies and a tendency to isolation. Over time, they end up relating only to partners, pimps and clients until they develop a pathological relationship with the men they see in the light of their relationship with the clients.

Most of them have already learned how to treat men from their childhood, when they started prostitution or sexual abuse.

13. Tendency towards isolation and lack of expectations

The continued exercise of prostitution becomes a pit of destruction and degr adation , since people who work offering their body feel that they are not good for anything else. Most of them are moved from one club to another every few weeks, which makes it difficult for them to socialize and take root

14. Possibility of developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Up to 68% of them suffer from it. This is a very serious disorder, with a higher rate of suffering than that suffered by war veterans and higher in those who are in clubs than those who are on the streets

15. Possibility of developing dissociative disorders

Dissociative disorders such as Depersonalization Disorder cause persistent periods of distancing from oneself, or feeling like an outsider. These serious disorders, as well as drug addiction, are a form of pain and anxiety relief, as well as torture and even slow death.

Suicide also becomes an escape route , although the mafias are in charge of maintaining the threats to them and their families, and also the hope of escaping, paying off the debt or leaving that world to fulfil the dream of a normal life.

Isn’t it always like that?

Some might say: But this will only happen to some, there are many prostitutes and escorts who live very well, as it appears in some television programs and other media.

The reality is that prostitution is linked to violence, abuse, the position of superiority of men over women , a situation of gender abuse since more than 99% of clients are men.

It should be borne in mind that the above data are obtained from the average number of women in prostitution. It could be that some women say they are at another level, one in which all of this does not affect them, but with time, the first violation will come, as well as psychological or physical abuse; the estrangement from the family can also be gradual , when not direct rejection or difficulty in maintaining a couple or family relationship.

It may be that some women say that they chose that kind of life , but that does not dignify the fact that they are used by many men, to risk their lives and health. It could be that some young and strong woman or some man too, believes that he is above all that, and is curious about that world. For them especially is this article and to show data that many hide, considering the power of the sex industry.