Getting a hip replacement is almost like an investment. Here you take the hit early on – being put out of action and going through considerable discomfort – with the pay off coming later down the line when you will hopefully be able to return to your normal life in less pain than you were before.

Like any investment, the sooner you make it, the more you stand to gain from it. Many people put off their hip replacement and choose to instead wait for it to get worse, or wait for it to be a ‘better time’. The truth though really is that there is not really ever going to be a ‘good’ time. If you think you have a lot on your plate now, then you probably didn’t foresee it a few months ago. Similarly in a few months you are likely to have a different selection of just-as-pressing issues. What you are doing by opting to have your hip replacement as soon as possible is getting it out of the way so that you can return to your normal life with no pain and this is highly important.

Another reason to have a hip replacement sooner rather than later is that having a bad hip can cause you to place more weight on your other leg and this in turn can result in you ending up with two bad hips. At the same time you are more likely to have accidents such as trips and falls. In general you are also better able to deal with surgery and all forms of trauma the younger you are, then there is the fact that your hip joint will deteriorate more the longer you put it off, resulting in stronger medication and worse deformity of the bone which can make a hip replacement more difficult. So it makes sense to have your surgery early on from a health perspective. Again in this way it is an investment – experience pain now, but thereby stop yourself from having as many future conditions. Finally, as you never know what other complications may arise, or how long you might have to remain on the waiting list, it is a good idea to get the procedure out of the way early on so that you are not caught out later. You also have no guarantee that your hip will not suddenly get a lot worse and then you will regret not having been put on the waiting list sooner.