Well, as far as pre-come is concerned, that is a natural phenomenon, which is supposed to lubricate the process of penetration. The idea that a partner would dislike it is not worth considering. Many experienced women regard it as a sort of tribute to their attractiveness.

Regarding your erections, you are clearly a nervous guy, so I think you need to find yourself a nice, reassuring partner who can help you in bed and make sure - by using her hands - that you maintain an adequate degree of stiffness. Intercourse is not as frightening as you imagine !

Almost certainly. Please see a doc and talk it over.

Q

No. Appendicitis generally causes pain far down on the right-hand side of the belly. My guess is that smoking and drinking have given you excess acid in your stomach. Try and live more sensibly in the next week or two!

But if the pain doesn't go away, get yourself a check-up from a doctor.

Q

I am a little puzzled by your email. I don't know of any way in which teething troubles as a baby can give a guy spots and scars when he is in his teens.

I wonder if it is really ACNE that you have. I advise you to see a dermatologist (that is, a medical skin specialist) to get this condition diagnosed and treated.

Q

Three days after that last occasion, he called me and told me that he was seeing symptoms of a sexually transmitted infection. He said that his doctor had confirmed that he had gonorrhoea.

Then he confessed to me that he had had sex with somebody else on November 30. But he said that he used a condom and the condom did not burst. So there is clearly no way that he got the gonorrhoea from that girl.

He also told me that the doc had informed him that it takes three days to start noticing the symptoms of that particular sexual infection. We both got medication to treat the disease. Well, my boyfriend and I really love each other, but we would both like to know how is it possible that this infection occurred?

Look: there is one big misunderstanding in your email and it is this. You think that a condom gives complete protection against sexually transmitted infections - but that is just not true.

Condoms do give a real good degree of protection, but germs can sometimes find their way round them. Also, guys quite often fail to wear the condom throughout the entire period of sexual contact - and only put the condom on for the last few minutes. Result: infection.

Also, in your situation, it is common for people not to tell the entire truth! I am afraid that I have seen this often in young couples. Clearly, YOU have no reason to lie to me - but it may be that what your boyfriend has told you is not entirely accurate.

So, where did the gonorrhoea come from? Well, the first possibility is that it came from YOU.

Your email does seem to suggest that before you met your present partner, you may perhaps have had sex with others. It could be that you picked up the germ from another guy, and that it lay 'dormant' - that is, without causing any symptoms - in your body for a long time.