Symptoms of this type of heart disease vary due to the type of congenital heart disease that a child has. A child may have a blush discoloration of the skin or they have some or all of the following:

Exercise may worsen the symptoms such as anxiety or labored breathing in later childhood years. These are also signs that the cyanotic heart disease is getting worse.

If left untreated cyanotic heart disease can cause irreversible damage to body organs, and sometimes even death can occur.

This type of heart disease is often not preventable. Because this type of heart disease usually starts as an infection in the womb; pregnant women should not drink alcohol.

If a woman decides that she wants to get pregnant she should make sure that all of immunizations are up to date.