u/AdventurousNewt828

Hey everyone! 40m just diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve and a sinus of valsalva aneurism measuring 5.1cm. I’ve had an echo cardiogram and a CT scan both showing the same thing. Echo shows mild regurgitation and no stenosis. The rest of my heart is functioning normally. I feel lucky to have caught this as I was deadlifting heavy weights a couple weeks ago!

My cardiologist has started the referral process to a cardiothoracic surgeon.

I’m in North Carolina and have family in the triangle area, so my top 2 options close to home are UNC and Duke university hospitals. Does anyone have experience with these? Would looking out of state be worth it? My third option is Mission in Asheville but it’s a backup - that hospital is a mess.

Finally, I’m wondering if anyone has any positive experiences with mental health after getting surgery. Over the last few years I’ve developed extreme fatigue after exercise and physical tightness in my chest during exertion. I’ve assumed they were from depression and anxiety after hearing it from my doctors, but for the other 35 years of my life exercise has improved these and not made it worse. I’m wondering if a silver lining to a surgery might be a resolution to my fatigue and anxiety.

Thank you to those sharing your experiences - I’ve enjoyed reading the positive posts. They have helped me a lot and given me hope that it can get better!

I’m hoping that sharing here will make it easier for me to break out of an eat-guilt-eat doom loop that began this weekend. I’m currently on 5mg of tirzepatide but have started going up to 7.5mg. Highest dose was 10mg earlier this year when I lower 60lbs and got a six pack for the first time in my life.

I found out last I have a congenital heart defect that will likely require open heart surgery to fix. I don’t know when it will be, but I am meeting with my cardiologist tomorrow to talk about it.

Anyway, after my diagnosis last week I started freaking out. I have been eating to cope with the anxiety, an old habit. Unfortunately it wasn’t just one cheat meal, it’s gone on for the last five days. My guilt is made worse by how I think it might be affecting my heart, which causes me to eat more, etc. I have also been fatigued and missed two days in the gym.

I’m hoping that going up to 7.5mg and maybe 10mg will help stop it, but the titration does take a while. My therapist advised me to be gentle with myself and relax. But it’s really hard!

40M here. Started TRT with levels between 150-300 on a 120mg dose. This gets my total/free testosterone to 600/115 and my estradiol to 13. Currently at 160mg which gets me to around 800/18 total test / estradiol.

So my total testosterone to estradiol ratio has always been high, around 45, regardless of bodyfat (7%-25%). But mentally I feel the best when my estradiol is higher. I added in HCG and briefly felt amazing for 1-2 weeks on 250IU EOD, but then hit 55 on E2 which was too high. Acne, water retention etc. I’m assuming a level of 30-40 would be optimal.

Has anyone in a similar situation had success raising their estradiol to a higher, stable level without HCG or running 300mg+ a week?