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I recently began dating a woman who is 12 years younger than myself. We have been doing everything except intercourse. We have very good sexual chemistry. Eighteen years ago I had a vasectomy. She knows that. And yet, she is concerned that she may become pregnant. Through the years I have had relationships with more age appropriate women with no concern of conceiving. Never a thought until now. This subject has become rather frustrating for us both. She wants me to visit my urologist to make sure and she wants to have some sort of a birth control shot.

~Scott

Calm down Scott, you're raising my sperm count. And nobody wants that, least of all my girlfriend. Vasectomies have a batting average of 99.85 percent effectiveness for birth control, meaning it's about as good as it gets, unless we count abstinence, which we won't because we are not Miley Cyrus and/or the Bush administration. The chance of pregnancy after vasectomy is reduced even more as time goes on, with an average of 1 to 2 women out of 1,000 becoming pregnant after the first year. On a very rare occasion, the vas deferens (the tubes that chauffeur sperm from the testicles to the urethra) can spontaneously reconnect, allowing sperm to schmooze with the semen again. This is called recanalization and will probably be the name of the next Red Hot Chili Peppers album. But the likelihood of recanalization occurring is about as good as the Icky Twins finding televised true love.

If your girl is unconvinced, and it certainly seems that way, you can put her mind at ease and have a semen sample test. If it shows a zero sperm count, then you don't need to use any other birth control. It's certainly less costly than her getting the shot (Depo-Provera), which will put her back about $50 depending on if her insurance pays for it (it's less likely to be covered than the pill) and subsequent check-ups. Also, the shot only lasts three months, so she would have to get re-shot quarterly. Is your girlfriend's behavior a bit obsessive? Perhaps, but a woman's uterus is prime real estate (just ask the pro-lifers) and if she wants to protect her ass-ets, then she's free to do so. Just make sure not to explain that to her using a terrible real-estate metaphor.