I injured my right hip in the service when I was 21. It slowly deteriorated over the years probably from bone spurs that the wonderful retired contract doctor failed to diagnose back then. It got so bad that in my late 30's I had to give up biking because of the pain and lost range of motion. I wish the doctor would have let me have hip surgery when I was in my 40's but they wanted to wait until it was totally gone so last year I had it replaced at 52. I did find some things that helped ease the pain like laying off of dairy, drinking cherry juice and other natural anti inflammatory foods but that last xray showed no cartilage left and the socket was oblong and the ball end was worn flat on one side. I have health insurance but still ended up paying about 4K which was money well spent in my book...