That's really interesting, and from that I would assume that the risk of cervical (or other cancers) from HPV is associated with how often someone is reinfected? ie, someone who got HPV once in college doesn't have HPV their whole life? And potentially has a lower cancer risk than someone who is repeatedly re-infected?

Am I understanding that correctly?

https://www.hpvworld.com/articles/the-frequency-of-hpv-infec...

It's incredibly prevalent, but most people clear it within a couple years, and won't even know that they had it. The time to clear it is just variable and depends on your body's immune response, the longer you go without clearing it the higher the cancer risk.

> someone who got HPV once in college doesn't have HPV their whole life?

Doesn't necessarily have HPV their whole life - time-to-clearance is somewhat variable.

And yes, both slower clearance and just more infections are both associated with increased risk.