It does sound scary and I'm not surprised that it has you worried, but mitral valve incometence is actually rather common.

It's not until it causes problems like severe fatigue, or shortness of breath, or palpitations or other similar "heart" type symptoms, that most people even find out they have any valve problems of this type.

My own daughter has mitral valve incompetence, and it's picked up as a heart murmur by every new doctor she ever goes to. She was born with her's 31 years ago, and it's quite benign....having never caused her any problems at all.

If severe problems were to arise, the mitral valve can actually be replaced. They tend to use either a mechanical valve, or a pig's valve as these tend to have a much higher success rate than other types of replacement valves. If you were to need a valve replaced, it's fairly straight forward surgery and most people only stay in hospital for 4 or 5 days.

I hope that helps to alleviate any immediate worries, but don't forget that your doctor should answer any questions you might have.

If you're not happy with the answers that you are getting, ask for a referral to a heart specialist. That way you can have what's known as an echo cardiograph done. Echo cardiograms show whether or not the valve is causing any major problems with your cardiac function.