Question about Vulcans and Sex
I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I am trying to separate canon from fanon when it comes to Vulcan mating habits.
My first question is whether Vulcans are capable of having sex outside of the seven-year pon farr cycle. The Original Series seems to contradict itself on the subject: in This Side of Paradise it is implied that Spock had some sort of relationship with Leila in years past which made me think that it occurred during a pon farr. But later in Amok Time, it is strongly implied that he is experiencing pon farr for the first time and therefore had never taken a mate. Then in the season three episode The Cloud Minders, Spock tells Droxine that Vulcans only take a mate once every seven years but that extreme beauty can overcome the cycle (or something along those lines). Personally I would think that Vulcans must be capable of having sex whenever they wish, otherwise why isn’t everyone on the planet seven years apart? Also I would think it very difficult to maintain a population of 4 billion plus if babies were only born every seven years. Is there anything in canon that clarifies this?
My next question: how old are Vulcans when they first experience pon farr? In Amok Time Spock seems to experience pon farr for the first time in his mid- to late-thirties, but in The Search for Spock he undergoes pon farr as an adolescent (which makes a lot more sense to me). Any opinions? Was this addressed in the books, or on any of the other series (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, etc.)?