Way to offer a helpful, supportive answer there, Dswager, especially from a 'senior' member of our community...and we ARE a community, aren't we? Was it really necessary to publicly state that your laughing your a$$ off at his question, asked with a sincere desire to learn more?
Will that encourage him to continue participating in our community?
I have to admit I've often had a similar thought. Camera mfr's often tout the durability of their shutters by stating the average number of shutters cycles to be expected. I've never seen a similar statement regarding the number of aperture diaphragm cycles of a lens.
There may be any number of reasons he stated his question with the word 'shutter' in it. Perhaps (though I doubt) as with me, he sometimes mixes up similar terms. I consider it a form of dyslexia. Maybe he just inadvertently used that word but had the correct thought in his mind (and hasn't edited his posting to correct it). And, in a way, it's not incorrect to ask how many times the shutter has been activated with the lens attached. Unless he shoots 100% at wide open, that would also cause activation of the aperture diaphragm to stop down the lens to some degree.
Mike, to more directly answer your question, I've never heard of any way to do this, though the factory service center may be able to extract this information if it has any type of counting software in it's internal chips (if there are any...). That would require sending the lens in to them, though. This may not be a bad option of its performance has significantly degraded. The helical threads, or what ever other mechanism is used to move the lens elements may have worn out of tolerance. Or with years of use, vibration, exposure to varying temps etc etc elements have shifted and are also no longer w/in acceptable tolerances.
Hopefully some other more helpful and knowledgeable members of the board will offer you some help here as well.
And don't let Dswagers attitude and response dissuade you from continuing to post and participate here. You'll fine many more helpful, welcoming folks here than 'others'.
Thomas.