I was 43 at the time. Psychologically, it took a couple of months to a year to relax about the whole thing. I'm 72 now, been taking HGH, Testosterone, and Synthroid, pretty much steadily since the surgery (the HGH came into the picture shortly after Genentech came out with the recombinant version). I still choose to work (self employed) financial services. I play tennis regularly, easily run 3-4 miles at a time maybe 3 times a week, swim half a mile a couple of times a week, workout with weights/machines a couple of times a week, and basically have no chronic injuries such as knee, hip, shoulder, back, or whatever. I've done these things regularly my whole life (run in total around 50,000 miles). I'm grateful and know I'm lucky but actually feel kind of creepy sometimes listening to the other people my age complain about their aches and pains since I don't really have any to speak of with them. I'm slower running and swimming than I used to be. I'm saying all of this because maybe the hormone supplements have actually kept my levels at more optimum levels than others my age, allowing me to so far escape some of those age related maladies. So maybe, strangely, the surgery had a plus side.