I have a heart murmur caused by a leaky valve, which i found out about when I was 18. I saw a cardiologist at the time, who said nothing to worry about. When I was 25, I had some kind of chest pains and wondered about the murmur, so I saw a GP again, who sent referred me for ECG, stress test, looked at the structure and 24 hour monitor, again the cardiologist looked at the results and confirmed the murmur needed no follow-up and said that it wouldn t affect my life expectancy - just antibiotics if I have dental work, although some dentists now say this is not always needed. So again I walked away happy. I m 31 now (male, 6 ft 3) and haven t had any symptoms but I m an anxious sort of person by nature and whenever I read about murmurs online, it says that if they re caused by a leaky valve, they can get worse over time. It makes me wonder whether I ll need surgery one day, especially as I was so young when it was detected. Maybe it depends on the type of murmur. I m not even sure I d want to know the answer and I know that I haven t given a lot of details (I can t even remember which valve it is) but just wanted to see what a doctor thought.