1 in 5 men here cheat on partners

wow, this is the headlines carried by mypaper in the front page which highlighted the latest global sexual wellbeing survey commissioned by condom maker, durex.

the survey carried out between september and october polled men and women from 36 countries which included 506 singaporeans. other countries in the survey included australia, malaysia, china and the united states.

women in singapore have, on average, 6 sexual partners from the time they first had sexual intercourse and for men, on average having 16 sexual partners from the time they lose their virginity. around 17% of men here admitted to losing their virginity through paid sex.

and what is more worrying is that 42% of male singapore respondents said they did not use any protection against HIV, aids and other STIs when they had sex for the first time and ditto for approx 50% of women respondents here. and almost 25% of the latter who had unprotected sex said it was a risk they were willing to take.

my comments:

when i read the article, thoughts like the very real risks of contracting HIV and sexual diseases through unprotected sex went rampant in my mind but other thoughts occupied my mind as well which dwelt on financial planning and wealth protection planning.

firstly, if 1 in 5 men cheat on their partners, our island's statistics on divorce and divorce rates are already pretty alarming. for example, our divorce rate has doubled over the last decade, and as of 2003, for every 10 marriages registered in our tiny red dot nation, almost 3 ended in divorce. and looking at the government's statistics (http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/keyind.html#mardiv) on the general divorce rate as at 2010, it is 7.6 and 7.3 per 1,000 married resident males and females respectively. (see chart on age specific divorce rates)

and in terms of a scenario of a future parting of the ways for the married couple (however unlikely), i wonder whether financial planners have factored this into their clientele's financial plan.

and secondly, due to the very high percentage of male and female respondents who engaged in sex for the very first time without protection may or may not have made full disclosure when entering into contracts of insurance. if this is true, then the relationship between insured and insurer may not be binding and the insurance policy incepted may not be valid.

i have posted on the principle of uberrima fides often enough and this blog entry serves as another gentle reminder here to everyone involved, be it the consumer, tied agent, bank adviser, or financial adviser.