Dear Bunmi, I want to lose my virginity.

I will be celebrating my 18th birthday soon.

I have been going out with my boyfriend for some time now and I am still a virgin.

However, I have promised to have sex with him after my 18th birthday and have told him to buy some condoms, as I don’t want to be saddled with an unwanted pregnancy.

I am still a student and my parents are old-fashioned, so I can’t ask them about contraception.

My boyfriend said I shouldn’t worry, as I couldn’t possibly get pregnant the first time I have sex.

Is he right?

Modesta, by e-mail.

Dear Modesta,

There is absolutely nothing stopping you from getting pregnant when you have sex, be it your first or your hundredth.

When puberty begins, your ovaries start producing eggs. The result? Your first period.

Apart from the odd occasion, everyone who has a period produces an egg, and so there’s always a chance of getting pregnant.

So, until you make a solid arrangement with your boyfriend as to the best term of contraception to adopt, I would put sex on hold for now, if I were you.

Eighteen is definitely young. Get a lot of sex education – you have your whole world ahead of you, so plan to have meaningful sex.