Heart Valve Disease Awareness Week

September 14 – 20, 2026

Video translations

- Chinese
- Dutch
- French
- French (Canada)
- German
- Hindi
- Italian
- Japanese
- Portuguese (Latin America)
- Spanish
- Spanish (Latin America)
- Swahili

Listen to your heart. Listen for the murmur.

Heart valve disease is common, serious, but treatable. Sometimes, the first sign is a heart murmur — a subtle change in the sound of blood flowing through the heart. It’s not something you can hear yourself, but your doctor can with a stethoscope check… the first step in detecting heart valve disease.

Listening for the sound of a heart murmur can be life-saving, so ask your doctor to listen to your heart.

What is heart valve disease?

Heart Valve Disease is a medical condition that occurs when one or more of the four valves in our heart don’t work properly.

There are different ways that heart valves can stop working properly. Sometimes valves don’t fully open, so less blood gets through. Sometimes valves don’t fully close and leak, allowing blood to flow the wrong way.

A heart murmur is caused by turbulent blood flow through the heart valves. Your doctor can hear this murmur with a stethoscope.

Heart valve disease is common,
serious, but treatable.

Heart valve disease can develop quietly. Symptoms like breathlessness, dizziness or fatigue may not appear for years and may vary. For some patients, symptoms don’t show for many years, or might not present at all, making diagnosis more difficult, so a regular stethoscope check with your doctor is a good idea.

See playlist and translated versions

Women and Heart Valve Disease

Despite being recognised as the next cardiac epidemic, sex and gender differences in heart valve disease are still being overlooked.

Women living with heart valve disease face critical challenges, from delayed diagnosis to lack of tailored support.

There is a clear need for a better understanding of sex and gender differences in women living with HVD, including investigation of biological differences from men, and also their gender identity and social experiences.

Read our report “Shaping the Future for Women with Heart Valve Disease”

Read Fabiane’s story of living with heart valve disease

An inspiring patient voice from our Affiliate Instituto Lado a Lado pela Vida’s patient community.

Learn more

Watch now to hear from the Global Heart Hub community on what it means to be living with heart valve disease.

See playlist and translated versions

Listen for the murmur

There are many signal sounds that we can hear ourselves, but heart valve disease isn’t one of them.

Sometimes, a heart murmur can be an early sign of heart valve disease. There are many kinds of heart murmurs – it can sound like a “whoosh”, “swish” or other unusual sound. You can’t hear a heart murmur yourself, but your doctor can with a simple stethoscope check.