DOCTOR'S ADVICE - Can a 'tiny drop' make me pregnant?

• Can a 'tiny drop' make me pregnant?

Q. Doc, could one drop of a boy's sex fluid make me pregnant? I hope you can give me good advice because I am very worried. Last week, I spent a pleasant evening on the beach with a boy of 18 who I had only recently met. Shortly before I was due to go home, we started kissing and cuddling. And that was kind of nice, but then we both got carried away. We started undoing each other's clothes, and then he began to stroke my breasts. I don't quite know how it happened, but suddenly, he seemed to orgasm. I realised this because there was wet stuff everywhere. The last thing that happened was that he was stroking me intimately, but at that point, I realised that I could see a drop, or 'blob', of his fluid on his right hand. Doc, I was terrified that this fluid had been near to my privates. So you can see why I am fretting. Do you think this drop of liquid could have made me pregnant? In fact, could there be any sperm in such a tiny drop?

A: Well, one drop of a guy's seminal fluid contains thousands of spermatozoa. So young girls should bear in mind that this liquid is pretty dangerous!  However, please let me make the following points:

• You have no evidence that the blob of fluid which you saw on his hand was semen - it could have been something else;
• In any case, sperm do not survive very long on the skin;
• It doesn't really sound as though this drop of fluid went inside you;
• It is very uncommon for pregnancy to occur as a result of sperm deposited outside the vagina - though it can occur.

Summing up, I feel it is most unlikely that you are pregnant, but please do not take risks like this again. If you are going out on a date with a guy and think it may end in sex, then make sure you are protected.

• 50 per cent cut

Q. Doc, would it be possible to have a 'half-circumcision'? I am 21 years old, and I have always had a rather long foreskin. It gets in the way when I am in bed with my girlfriend. She does not mind it, but I do. Now, I do not want to have a circumcision operation, but if I consulted a surgeon, would he agree just to cut off half of the foreskin? I feel that this would solve all my problems.

A: Well, operations on the foreskin do not often 'solve all problems'. Also, you don't tell me what type of problem the foreskin is causing. Is it too tight? If so, then surgery might help. I can understand the fact that you are not too keen on a circumcision operation. Some guys take this op and then regret it for years afterwards.

But yes, it is possible that a surgeon might be willing to do a kind of '50 per cent' operation for you in which he takes away part of the skin but leaves the rest. My best advice is that you go and see that surgeon-specialist and talk it over with him.

• Maintaining my hymen

Q. I am a 22-year-old female from India. I lost my virginity at the age of 19. I currently have a boyfriend, and I engage in sex with him more than twice a month, but I have a fear that my hymen will become loose. So please give me advice, or any exercises, or anything that would help me maintain my hymen.

A: I think you are labouring under a basic misunderstanding here. The hymen is the veil which partially closes off the lowest part of a girl's vagina. Having intercourse usually destroys it - forever.

So when you lost your virginity at age 19, the probability is that your hymen was demolished that night. And now you say that you have been engaging in sex with your current boyfriend twice a month. If you are talking about intercourse, then it is virtually certain that you have no trace of your hymen left.  So there is really no point in doing any vaginal exercises. What has gone has gone, I'm afraid.

Do you really want to try to restore the appearance of virginity? If that is so, then the only way to do it would be to undergo surgery. There are surgeons, in India and many other countries, who will create a little 'false hymen' out of a piece of vaginal tissue. But it costs a lot to have this operation. I wish you well.

Email questions to Doc at saturdaylife@gleanerjm.com and read more in the Outlook Magazine tomorrow.