Joint Replacements Shouldn’t Be a Rite of Passage
- cassis101
- Oct 5
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 7
By Deborah Westergaard, MD | Pain Experts | Dallas–Plano
The Problem: We’ve Normalized Joint Replacement as “Inevitable”
For decades, society has treated joint replacement as a near-inevitable milestone of aging: a “rite of passage” that comes with turning 60 or 70. Knee and hip replacements are so common that many people assume they’re unavoidable. But when you step back and look at the full picture — the cost, the risk, and the lifestyle limitations — this mentality starts to look outdated.
Even the “best” replacements come with trade-offs. Metal and plastic implants can loosen, wear, or become infected. Recovery often takes months. There’s also the invisible cost: lost time, diminished mobility during recovery, and the mental burden of knowing you have a foreign object in your body that can fracture the bone around it if you fall.
I know this from personal experience.
A Personal Journey: From Anti-Aging Enthusiast to Hip Replacement Patient
I’ve been fascinated by anti-aging science since my mid-thirties. Call it vanity, call it survivalism, call it curiosity — I wanted to understand how to stay strong and vital for as long as possible. In the 1990s, I devoured everything I could about telomeres, supplements, and longevity. I exercised religiously, ate whole foods long before it was trendy, and even endured some workplace teasing for my “weirdly healthy” lunches.
That dedication paid off in energy and resilience. But despite all my efforts, a severe hip injury in my forties — and years of overuse — eventually caught up with me. I tried orthobiologic treatments to push back the clock, and they worked for a time. Yet ultimately, I had to undergo a hip replacement.
Today, I’m grateful for modern orthopedic surgery — it restored my mobility. But I also live with the reality of an implant: the risk of infection, the need to avoid certain falls or impacts, and the knowledge that one hip has already “gone under the knife.”
I’ve made a commitment: my other joints will not go down that same path.
The Solution: Regenerative Medicine, Not Resignation
What we once assumed was “inevitable” is now optional. Advanced regenerative techniques including bone marrow concentrate (BMC) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) are showing that joints can often be stabilized, nourished, and strengthened without metal or plastic.
Instead of waiting for a joint to “wear out” and replacing it wholesale, these procedures target the supportive structures ligaments, cartilage, subchondral bone, and multifidus muscles to address the root causes of instability and pain. This isn’t magic, and it’s not for everyone. It requires precision, proper patient selection, and skilled post-procedure rehab. But for the right person, it can delay or even prevent the need for surgery.
It’s the difference between replacing the entire roof and repairing the trusses before they collapse.
Why This Matters Now
Healthcare costs are skyrocketing. The price of a single joint replacement can reach $30,000–$100,000 or more once you include hospital fees, anesthesia, rehab, and lost productivity. Regenerative treatments, while often not covered by insurance, can be a fraction of that cost — and more importantly, they preserve your native tissue.
As someone who has lived both sides of this equation — the anti-aging enthusiast and the patient on the operating table — I believe we need a new narrative. Joint replacement should be a last resort, not a milestone we resign ourselves to.
Rethink Your Options
If you’re active, driven, and committed to living fully at any age, you owe it to yourself to explore every option before surgery. In my regenerative medicine facility, we take a comprehensive, precision-guided approach to joint pain, one that respects the complexity of your body and your goals.
Don’t accept joint replacement as your default future. There may be another path.
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