Symptoms. We’re other sufferers asymptomatic for most of their lives?

I think many of us have asked ourselves the same question. I’m 79 now and was just diagnosed early this year after five years of extreme fatigue and shortness of breath. I thought i was just getting old. I’ve been on myqorzo for 2 months now. I’ll be staying at 10 mg. I feel better than I’ve felt in years! I have energy again, can walk several miles without tiring. I’m very thankful that there is a treatment that can work and I’ve had no side effects!

I’m 73 and that is a question I’ve asked myself many times. I didn’t have any known symptoms until I got short of breath starting a few years ago. I too have always been active but when the doctor told me I probably had HMC since I was a young woman I began to wonder what impact it had had on me. I know during pregnancy I could barely walk up a hill and my husband and I would laugh about it. When I rode bike often even the smallest kid would fly past me. Looking back we just accept the way our body behaves and how it changes, and ages, but I now think it was an underlying factor in my health even though I always worked hard to stay fit. I think, we will never know what things would have been like without it’s development, unbeknownst to us.

@carolinca
I've noticed how many of us in this exchange were very physically active before we were diagnosed with HCM. It was the decline in our ability to sustain our physical activity that finally flagged the problem. I am concerned for those less active people who are never diagnosed and just decline without knowing why or how to address it. In looking back, I was diagnosed with a heart murmur in my 30's but it was dismissed by cardiologists and primaries as probably congenital. Most cardiologists never heard of HCM except doctors at Mayo's back then.
I'm betting I was not alone in feeling guilty when I gradually cut back on physical activity, blaming age, too busy, or laziness. I used to run 20-30 miles a week, ran a couple marathons, hiked a lot (even did the Grand Canyon), but slowly cut back, and eventually went to biking, but eventually did shorter and shorter distances.
At 79, and newly diagnosed, its now hard to build back up, yet
I feel I've got to work even harder to rebuild my fitness. Right now I've been on Camzyos for less than 2 months but can't say I'm excited about the results so far. While i do feel fairly good, I'm interested in following those of you on Myqorzo. It seems to have better results so far, and fewer side effects.
I don't expect to run marathons anymore of course, but want to resume hiking several miles and riding my bike again. Anybody who has a good fitness rebuilding regimen, let me know! Lol 😆

@doctorboo1 I am glad that you were finally diagnosed at 79 and are working hard to regain lost fitness. I was fortunate that in my later 50's my primary care doctor heard a heart murmur for the first time, and I was referred to a cardiologist who knew much about HCM. Camzyos was still in trial and Myqorzo was yet to become a publicly known drug in 2022. That's when I had a septal myectomy at Mayo at almost-76. I suspect that regaining fitness is similar whenever we have been away from any exercising, hiking, bike riding, running and the many other good workouts that are important for our health. I strongly suggest consulting with your doctor for an OK and guidelines for intensity. Have you considered working with a trainer? Ask your doctor about cardio rehab. While the fitness level of your 30's will probably never be achieved, you are doing a very positive thing to live your best life.