I need your help. I am over one week late for my monthly period and I'm very depressed about it. I'm a virgin. My boyfriend and I were just fooling around. I was giving him a hand job and he was fingering me.

He ejaculated on my hand and then out of excitement he held on to my hand and then continued to finger me. Could I really be pregnant? Or could it be something else, because I doubt he touched the wet part of my hand.

My last period was different from the rest because it was light and painless. I'm 18 years of age and scared. Help me, please.

S.N., Hanover, Jamaica

Dear S.N.,

I wouldn't be surprised if you are pregnant. I suggest you go to the doctor. You and your boyfriend engaged in mutual masturbation. According to Joe S. McIlhaney Jr MD and Marion McIlhaney, "Mutual masturbation is a term used to refer to stimulation of another person's genital organs for sexual pleasure. Outercourse is genital contact without penetrative sex, either oral, anal or vaginal. The slang term dry sex is often used with reference to this activity."

Anything can happen when a man and a woman engage in outercourse. "A woman masturbating a man will have her hands covered with his semen when he ejaculates. The hands of a man masturbating a woman will become moist from her vaginal secretions. Partners masturbating each other will likely touch their own genitals during the activity."

From what you have written, I would not be surprised if you got pregnant. I have known of women who have got pregnant by engaging in outer sex. Kindly see your doctor as early as possible.

"Sperm has the capacity to swim up the vaginal canal, through the cervix, and into the uterus. Sperm can do this whether they are deposited at the vaginal entrance or high inside the vagina. If semen is deposited at the vaginal entrance, she does run the risk of becoming pregnant. Outercourse (dry sex) which involves close genital contact can cause pregnancy, even though the woman may technically be a virgin."