Anyone had cosmetic treatment on leg veins? Feeling down…

[Clueless2000]

I’ve spent the past few months trying really hard with diet and exercise and I’m thrilled with the results. Best I’ve ever looked and I feel like I can wear whatever I want which is fantastic.

But a few weeks ago, I spotted in the mirror what I thought was a big horrid bruise on the back of my lower calf - it’s actually a collection of broken veins. It looks awful. Really makes me look like I’ve got old lady legs. It’s really got my down as now I just don’t want to get my legs out and feel a bit cheated that I’ve tried so hard to feel better about how I look and now this has appeared - something I have no real control over.

So I’d really like to look into treatment options. I’ve no idea about them though - would it be a surgical procedure/laser treatment? Anyone had something like this done and been happy with the results? And is it expensive (I’m guessing yes!)?

following as I have these and varicose veins!

Waiting until I give up ttc (imminent) to actually do anything though.

No advice for us poor veiny-legged ladies??

I've had treatment with sclerosing agent injected into my veins. It worked really well, but I still develop fine spider veins so I go back and have it done every year. I'm in a different country, so can't recommend a treatment provider, but Google the treatment to see if there is something similar available to you.

Mr kyriakides (sorry if spelling is wrong) at the Private Clinic on Harley Street, he’s lovely and very good.

I feel your pain 🙁

The treatment depends on the cause so worth going somewhere more medical i.e. a vascular specialist, than a cosmetic place. If you treat the cause it will hopefully not return.

It's not cheap.

I've had laser on my legs veins, you need a few sessions but the difference over time has been amazing for me. It's no longer a big obvious purple splodge. Not horrendously expensive if it's a relatively small area.

I had varicose veins and thread veins treated at www.veincentre.com - they're a specialist private veins clinic and have branches in several major cities. My background is in health research so I really only wanted to go to a specialist centre that used evidence - based treatments. This clinic does an ultrasound scan of your legs at consultation so they can establish what's causing the problem. If you have a valve failure higher up inside the leg then it needs to be treated otherwise venous problems will just keep coming back. Unfortunately I had several failed valves in both legs so my treatment was quite extensive but it's been very successful. For the 2 years since treatment I've been in shorts at every opportunity, after about 20 years of keeping my legs under wraps!

Great , thank you all - how would I find out what the cause is? Would I have other symptoms?
I’d love to ask my doctor about it (just about potential causes, I know I can’t get this sort of treatment on the NHS!) but I can’t imagine they’d appreciate me using an appointment for a cosmetic issue.

As PP said, you need to go to a specialist clinic/consultant and they'll carry out various investigations, examine you and ask questions. Sometimes ultrasound is enough, sometimes you need further investigations. Occasionally there are other symptoms, have you searched online?

Your GP will know nothing about it and since they can't refer you to an NHS clinic, there is really no point in wasting their time.

As a temporary solution you could cover it with that makeup that covers tattoos maybe?

I've had some really minor veins treated with advanced electrolysis before which was about £15, and a patch on my face lasered for around £60, i obviously don't know what yours is and what it will cost but it's not necessarily majorly expensive.

Especially if it's just thin spider veins rather than full on varicose veins.

I'd just Google thread vein removal in your area if the veins are a collection of thin ones? A consultation might be around £20 at a cosmetic clinic type of place.
There are so many different lasers and IPL type machines that can treat them, leg veins are very common (after a certain age I believe 😒)

Would absolutely second this. I had veins done here and really pleased with outcome. It’s not cheap, but the outcome has been fabulous. From my personal experience, I wouldn’t spend money on vein treatments without having a scan first to see if any valve issues.

Good advice, thank you all. Yes, I wondered if some kind of makeup would be a good idea.

The way to find out the cause is to have a scan of your legs so they can see if the valves are working effectively. Valve failure is more likely if you have varicose veins, not just thread veins, but from the description of your calf I think you need to get it checked out. For me, when a vein failed I'd often feel a kind of twanging sensation followed by seeing a bruise appear, and then over time a bulging vein would show up or be felt in that area. Unfortunately once one valve has failed it causes increased pressure on the next one so you can get a domino effect with more going on future.
You probably know, but there are lifestyle factors that influence your risk of leg vein problems on top of any family tendency. The main risk factors are being overweight, lack of exercise, smoking, and pregnancy. But if one valve has failed then even if you have taken care of the lifestyle factors, the domino effect can carry on. I eventually lost my baby weight and got fit and my legs felt less achey but they still carried on getting worse; every so often another vein would "give", so I decided to get them treated. Fingers crossed, I've had no new problems since.

Sally Henson airbrushed legs is really good as a temporary solution

I was about to write this! It's great it's like you have tights on

I used Radiance Vein Clinic. They're very experienced and nice. I had varicose veins bad enough that they were causing me problems at work and one was a DVT risk. The NHS wait was 4 years at that time (2019) for serious stuff!

Although I didn't do this for cosmetic reasons, the cosmetic effects were good.

The consultant told me the issues I have were largely genetic (both parents have vein issues and my sister).

All this weight loss and shaping up wasn't in vain because it helps your veins and circulation health. Often clinics do 0% finance. It's worth having it done medically at a proper clinic. This is the only body you have might as well be as happy with it as you can.

I used radiance veins too.

Do you have sore legs as this indicates a more serious problem which I hadn't realised as I was only going for the cosmetics. I managed to get it done on my private medical in the end as it was a health issue. I think it's not something the nhs treat in a great hurry. I think small veins are treated as cosmetic so need to pay anyway.

Thank you all. I expect my issues are largely genetic as my mum has veins like this too. I’m not a smoker, and although I mentioned I’ve lost weight recently, I wasn’t really overweight. Think the first small thread veins I noticed appeared when I was pregnant.

i like the look of the vein centre. I have private medical insurance - it would be amazing if I could get a procedure done using that.

I have had 4 procedures in total. The first 3 were covered by my AXA policy (2 were done in the same OP so treated as one). The 4th I had to pay out of pocket but AXA did cover the initial appointment.

Brilliant - I’m with Axa too - thank you!