Comment by reaperman
Also note that very nearly everyone practicing BJJ past 35 is taking exogenous testosterone. Without additional testosterone, it would be very difficult to sustain the sport due to frequent small injuries - the extra/"replacement" hormones help speed up recovery and actually allow frequent (>1x/week) training sessions.
It depends on the details of the surgery, but this may have helped GP heal a bit faster.
While testosterone is not well-known for helping to heal ligaments/tendons, some HRT compounds (such as nandrolone) that are occasionally prescribed by doctors/urologists, have a lot of anecdotal accounts of reducing perceived joint pain.
I do not take testosterone. I occasionally try to make a habit of taking creatine but other than that and whey protein while weightlifting (another habit I struggle to reliably form) that’s it.
Maybe I’m out of touch but I would be astonished to find that it was even remotely close to “nearly everyone” for recreational hobbyists over 35.
The level of injury is just not as high as you’re suggesting for people who aren’t training to be elite competitors. I’ve had perhaps one “small” injury (muscle pull, joint overextension, etc.) every six months or so, reasonably consistently for the last ~7 years of BJJ / judo which I do three to five days a week, 2-3 hours a day.