Ignoring those swollen, twisted, bluish-green vessels and planning on delaying treatment for a decade or two? That's probably not your best move. "For a long time, doctors told patients with varicose veins that they should wait until they're finished having children before having the veins addressed. New clinical experience and therapies have shown that, in most cases, that's not true," says KathyLee Santangelo, MD, a board-certified vein specialist who leads the Totality medical group in Oklahoma City. Santangelo explains that the old-fashioned notion that you should postpone varicose vein treatment for as long as possible stems from medical guidelines that were issued back in the 1950s. "At the time, the [only] treatment for varicose veins was ligation and stripping, which was kind of a brutal, archaic procedure," she explains. Since it was major surgery and the complication rate was high, putting it off for as long as possible made sense. Nowadays? Not so much. For starters, ligation and stripping is rarely done anymore, as there are a number of less-invasive, highly-effective vein-removal techniques on the market. Experts also use ultrasound technology to pinpoint malfunctioning valves within varicose veins—which means it's possible to remove vessels that are likely to cause discomfort down the line, even if they're not so terrible at the moment. "All waiting does is increase the likelihood that other problems will occur," says Santangelo, noting that women who already have varicose veins are almost guaranteed to have them worsen during any future pregnancies. She says she's seen a few patients who, while pregnant, had to go on bed rest because the heaviness, throbbing, and burning got so bad. Eric Berens, MD, an endovascular surgeon with the Arizona Endovascular Center in Tucson, says there's no ideal time to treat varicose veins, and that it's up to each patient to decide when the issue has become uncomfortable or unsightly enough to act on. That said, he agrees with Santangelo that there's no advantage to waiting: "Varicose veins advance because of gravity, so the longer you live, the worse they will get." Berens adds that women should definitely seek professional treatment ASAP if they've already developed skin ulcers, pain, or bleeding. (If your discomfort is relatively minor, he says you can opt to try compression stockings first.) Ready to say sayonara to your varicose veins? There are several ways to do it, so you may wish to consult with a few specialists before deciding on an option. Many doctors now zap varicose veins with lasers or radiofrequency energy. You may also be a candidate for sclerotherapy, which involves injecting a chemical solution into the veins. In the past, sclerotherapy was mainly used for treating smaller "spider veins," but the FDA recently approved a new injectible, Varithena, which can be used to target certain types of larger varicose veins. "It's a 1-hour procedure, there's no hospitalization, no general anesthetic, no blood loss, and no need to wear compression [hose] for months," says Santangelo. Source
