Episode 5 - Hip Replacement at a Young Age

June 05, 2025

Hip Replacement at a Young Age: Recovery, Mindset, and Life After Surgery in Your 30s, 40s, or 50s

Hip replacement surgery is often thought of as an “older person’s” procedure — but more and more people are having hip replacement at a young age, including in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. For many patients, the physical recovery is only part of the challenge. The mental and emotional side can be just as difficult.

In this episode of The Hip Replacement Podcast, host Chris Bystriansky shares his personal experience having two hip replacement surgeries in his 30s and what it really felt like to navigate recovery, identity, and long-term expectations at a young age.

Chris introduces an important concept that resonates deeply with younger hip replacement patients: actual age vs. “feels-like age.” While your chronological age may be young, hip pain, surgery, and recovery can make you feel much older — and that disconnect can impact confidence, motivation, and self-image.

This episode explores:

Why hip replacement surgery at a young age feels different
Embarrassment, fear, and identity shifts after surgery
Returning to work and being treated “older” than you are
Concerns about long-term mobility and revision surgeries
How mindset affects hip replacement recovery
Why younger patients often push harder in physical therapy

Chris also explains how hip replacement technology has evolved, why average surgery ages are dropping, and how younger patients may actually recover faster — while also facing unique long-term considerations because they’ll live with their new hips for decades.

Perhaps most importantly, this episode offers reassurance. Chris shares how, years after surgery, life normalized completely — to the point where he barely thought about his hips at all. He explains how hip replacement surgery ultimately became a catalyst for better health, greater self-care, and a more active lifestyle than before.

This episode is especially valuable if you:

Are considering hip replacement in your 30s, 40s, or 50s
Feel “too young” to need hip replacement surgery
Are worried about long-term outcomes or future surgeries
Struggle with the mental side of recovery
Want honest insight into life after hip replacement

If you’re searching for real-world perspective on hip replacement at a young age, this episode offers clarity, reassurance, and a powerful reminder that surgery doesn’t define your future — how you respond to it does.

New hips. New you. Let’s go.

Thanks for joining THE HIP REPLACEMENT PODCAST.

-Chris

LINKS & RESOURCES

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Episode Transcript

The Hip Replacement Podcast – Episode 5 - Transcript

Welcome to The Hip Replacement Podcast, where recovery meets motivation and healing leads to a whole new lifestyle. I’m Chris Bystriansky, your host. I’m an author, athlete, and double hip replacement patient.

I’ve been through the surgeries, the setbacks, and the comebacks, and I’m here to help you do the same. Each week, I’ll bring you tips, tools, expert advice, and inspiring stories to help you take back your life one step at a time.

Thanks for joining The Hip Replacement Podcast. New hips, new you. Let’s go.
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Welcome back to The Hip Replacement Podcast. I’m Chris Bystriansky, your host. I’m more than ten years out from two hip replacement surgeries and still going strong, and I want to share my experiences with you.

Today’s episode is a big one, because it’s something I struggled with for a long time: having hip replacement surgery at a young age.

I was in my 30s when I had my first hip replacement surgery, and about 18 months later I had my second. It’s now been more than 12 years since that first surgery.

I’m going to talk a lot about age in this episode, and I want to clarify something right away. When I think about age, I separate it into two different concepts.

The first is your actual age — the number of years since you were born.

The second is your “feels-like age” or health age — how old you feel based on your health, mobility, and energy.

Those two numbers can be very different.
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I know people who are 30 years older than me who can run circles around me, ski all day, go out with friends, and live incredibly active lives in their 80s.

I also trained in martial arts for years and spent time training in Japan with people in their 60s and 70s who had been practicing for decades. These individuals — half my size and twice my age — threw me around like I weighed nothing.

That experience helped shape my belief that actual age and feels-like age are not the same thing.

I’ve also seen the opposite. I know people my age — and even younger — who look and feel far older than they are. Lifestyle, mindset, and health all play a role.
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When I had my first hip replacement in my 30s, age became a major issue for me.
I felt way too young to be having what I believed was an “old person’s surgery.” I worried that my feels-like age would suddenly skyrocket — that even though I was in my 30s, I’d feel like I was in my 60s.

I was embarrassed. I was concerned about long-term mobility. I worried about how many more surgeries I might need over my lifetime.

It took years to overcome those mental hurdles.
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After surgery, when I returned to work, people treated me differently. They held doors, offered chairs, and tried to help — all with good intentions — but it made me feel older than I was.
I just wanted to feel normal.

Before surgery, my actual age felt older than my feels-like age. After surgery, that flipped completely. My actual age felt young, but my feels-like age felt decades older.
It took years to realign those two again.
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Talking with surgeons helped. They explained that hip replacement surgery is no longer just for people in their 70s or 80s. The average age has been steadily dropping as technology and materials improve.

Still, it was hard to process when none of my peers were having hips replaced. I remember telling a group of golfing buddies — all older than me — that I needed hip replacement surgery, and they responded by telling me stories about their parents.
That didn’t exactly help my confidence.
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One thing I’ve reflected on is whether having surgery young was one of the reasons I later pursued endurance events like IRONMAN triathlons.

I think part of me wanted to prove — to myself more than anyone — that my hips didn’t define me and that I could still be active, strong, and capable.
And in many ways, that worked.
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One concern that still lingers for younger hip replacement patients is longevity. If you have surgery in your 30s, 40s, or 50s, you may live with those hips for decades.
In my case, I have ceramic-on-ceramic components rather than plastic liners, which theoretically last longer. So far, they’ve held up well — more than 10 and 12 years out — and I’m living a full, active life.

But the future is always a consideration.
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Over time, life normalized. Through my 40s and now into my 50s, I rarely think about my hips. For many years, they weren’t even on my radar.

That doesn’t mean I ignore my health — it means I learned how to take care of myself.
Younger patients often do more aggressive physical therapy because they want to return to higher activity levels and know they’ll live with these hips longer. That was true for me.
I was scared. I was motivated. And I committed fully to recovery.
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If you’re younger and facing hip replacement surgery — whether in your 30s, 40s, or 50s — your concerns are valid. You’re not alone.

Take care of yourself. Do your physical therapy. Stay active. Use this experience as a reason to prioritize your health — not retreat from it.

For me, hip replacement surgery ultimately became a catalyst for better health, not the end of it.
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In the next episode, I’ll talk about the aches and pains that can still show up years after hip replacement surgery — and what I’ve learned to manage them.

Thanks so much for listening to The Hip Replacement Podcast.

Until next time, I wish you the best recovery possible.

Take care.

Episode 5 - Hip Replacement at a Young Age

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