It sounds like you might have two different conditions. Statins are typically prescribed for atherosclerosis. Was it prescribed to control the aneurysm growth? I’d not heard of that but a quick google turned up an article that indicated it might help. Hmmm ….

I have coronary atherosclerosis (but no blockages greater than 50%) and an ascending aneurysm somewhere in the 4.3-4.7 range. I don’t have atherosclerosis in my aorta. I’ve talked to a couple of vascular surgeons and a couple of cardiologists and tried to educate myself about both conditions. I had run for decades and strength trained pretty consistently for a few years before my diagnosis about a year ago. I continue to run and strength train. Here’s my take on **my** situation FWIW. There appears to be no concern about endurance training if you keep the effort below “hard”. These were the exact words said to me on several occasions. One of the cardiologists I spoke with (monitoring the coronary atherosclerosis) asked me why I’d want to run for an hour or two when I asked if it was OK. That gave me a good chuckle.

WRT strength training, the advice seems to be more muddled. I imagine because it is so hard to measure BP spikes during exercise. The rule of thumb I have landed on is to also avoid “hard” or “straining” (valsalva manuever) for the aneurysm. I never hold my breath. I try to keep the weight low by raising the reps and slowing the eccentric portion of the exercise. FWIW, my cardiovascular surgeon said at the size of my aneurysm, he doesn’t recommend any restriction of activity, but he wouldn’t recommend power lifting. (There are lots of videos online of people passing out after a hard deadlift or getting nose bleeds on a record attempt. I don’t deadlift yet.) I am more conservative than he is I think. I also have the impression that cross body movements are problematic — so chopping wood for example. Also contact sports are obviously out.

It’s hard to find guidance on exercising for an aneurysm. I’ve seen a few Q&A sessions here: https://www.aortichope.org/ with doctors that study the question of exercise with aortic aneurysms. I don’t remember the doctor names, but you should be able to find videos if you poke around on that site.

WRT growth, I don’t have any experience. I didn’t think that exercise was a real contributor, but I may be wrong. Mine has been measured twice, one year apart, and it appears to have grown .2 cm, which is a lot. Yet, the measurements in general are relatively inaccurate, so I think you need to build up a history to have a guess at its real size. I try to keep my systolic less that 120 and my diastolic less that 80. But that’s for the atherosclerosis, rather than the aneurysm. I think the high BP can damage the veins of some people. If you have any sign of atherosclerosis and are otherwise healthy, I think there’ s no reason to not get your BP down a little.

WRT surgery now, I also had that question. I gather it’s hard (and possibly unwise) to get a surgeon who would do the surgery if the risk from the surgery is not greater than the risk from the aneurysm. I asked my cardiovascular surgeon if I could get too old for the repair and he said “80 years old” is generally when they stop.

This is just how I’m handling my own situation. I may be dead tomorrow. 🙂 Hope this helps. Good luck!