A: That's a difficult question. The older a woman is, the smaller the number of available men from which to choose, and that situation might force her to choose between engaging in sexual relations that might not be very safe and being alone. How to make that choice will depend a lot on the individual woman. Some women don't mind being alone as much as others do, and so they'll be more discriminating when it comes to putting themselves in sexual situations. Others will decide that the risks are worth the potential benefits of obtaining a partner. It's a decision that each woman has to make for herself, but you raise the most important part of that decision-making process: that there are risks. Just because you are a certain age and can't become pregnant, that doesn't mean you're immune to sexually transmitted diseases. So you have to carefully weigh the risks and then make your decision accordingly.

Q: What advice would you give parents of a 17-year-old daughter?

A: By 17, she's certainly formulated most of her personality, moral values system, etc. So she's far from a blank slate that you can try to mold. Therefore, my answer to your particular question would depend a lot on what type of person she is. You need to examine her strengths and weaknesses, and offer up any advice based on how you feel she could most benefit. But she's almost at an age when she's going to have to make all her own decisions, so for the most part your ability to guide her at this age is limited. Hopefully you did a good job when she was younger and you, as her parents, had a lot more influence. I don't want to say it's too late now, but in many respects, it is.

Q: Now that the stigma is gone for homosexuality, have the percentages across the total population increased? In other words, are people more comfortable about coming out, thereby increasing the percentages?

A: You say "Now that the stigma is gone," but it's not entirely gone. Just look at the controversy over gay marriage. There still are plenty of people who don't accept that the gay lifestyle is equal, and I'm also sure there remain plenty of people who still are in the closet because they are afraid of rejection — and for many, rightfully so. It's also true that the experts who put out the statistics of what percentage of our population is gay take into account that a certain percentage of gay people do not admit it publicly. So I don't know if the actual percentage of gay people is going to change because of this added acceptance. If that were true, it would mean that people did have a choice about being gay, but if they don't, if they're born that way, then society's acceptance won't really change anything as to the actual percentage. So, while certainly the percentage of gays who admit their sexual preference has climbed a great deal, the actual percentage of gays probably hasn't changed all that much.