It is very important to keep this in perspective. Of course to us here, it is a really big deal, but as klo has pointed out in comparison to many things, this increasing risk for HPV16 to cause cancers is small. Small does not mean it can't happen to you, it means small. The CDC numbers for HPV do not consider or know, how many of the 50-80% of the entire population that gets an HPV infection will get what types, so there is no hard data on how many will get HPV16. And we know from the cervical cancer model that that the vast majority of women that do, clear the infection in about 18 months. The real problem is just that. While it is highly likely that you will come into contact with it in your life (there is a reason that the FDA doesn't recommend the vaccine for people over 26, because they feel that sexually active people have likely had the virus before then) but what you can't know is if you have an immune system the recognizes it as a threat or not. About .9% of us are in that boat. So you have to actually get (out of 140 versions of HPV) #16, and out of of all the people that get that you have to have whatever anomaly in you immune system that does not see that as a problem as well. All this you can thank your grandparents for in your genetic make up.,

Since there are so many "you can't know's" in all this, the only thing you can do is arm yourself with information, limit the volume of exposure (number of sexual partners) to mathematically reduce your risk, and get screened every year. KEY IN ALL THIS is that you need to know the early warning signs of a developing HPV+ cancer, so that if you draw the unlucky card, you find it early when survival is higher, and treatment related morbidity is lower.

Nothing in life is completely safe. Not driving on the freeway, not normal sexual practices, not eating ground beef. (add your favorites to the list that goes on till the end of time. ) All we can do is (without living in a bubble) try to understand risks and take reasonable ones.