Read our series of blogs exploring how premature death affects women involved in the 'sex industry.' This series will run from August to September 2025 and new blogs will be added on this page every month.

We need to talk about the early deaths of women who sell sex

In this blog, we introduce you to our series and explain why we have decided to look deeper into the premature deaths of women involved in selling or exchanging sex.

What can put women who sell sex at risk of early death?

We explore different circumstances in the lives of women which can directly or indirectly increase their risk of dying early. We focus on three main aspects: their personal context, direct violence from people in their lives, and the systems that fail to prevent their early deaths.

Selling sex, inequality and the risk of early death

We spoke with Prof Sarah Johnsen, who shares how homelessness, substance use, and health inequalities can contribute to women’s commercial sexual exploitation and how this experience, in turn significantly affect women's health, potentially leading to early death.