With the British Columbia summer coming in after a few rainy months, you’ve probably started looking at your summer wardrobe of dresses, shorts, and skirts, anticipating the long sunny days and jaunts to the local beaches.
If you’re dealing with spider or varicose veins, you may be considering treatment in advance of the summer months.
Proceed with caution. May and June are a bit too close to the summer months to go forward with varicose or spider vein treatment. In this blog, we’ll break down the ideal timelines to treat leg veins, and additional considerations.
1) October – April
The rainy winter months (aka pants season) in Vancouver are the best time to get your Sclerotherapy treatment. You’ll have multiple months where wearing pants is commonplace, giving your legs ample time to recover from treatment.
Typical sclerotherapy treatment, whether it’s spider or varicose veins, comes with a six-to-eight week timeline. You can expect two-to-four treatments in this period, and results first showing about three weeks post-treatment.
Post-treatment, you can expect marks resembling mosquito bites on your legs from the injections.Some bruising and discoloring is also a possibility. For the first couple weeks post-treatment, it’s likely that your legs will look worse than before treatment. That’s why we tend to recommend a longer timeline, during pants season, for treatment.
2) Pre-Vacation
Planning that dream vacation to Turks & Caicos, Cabo, or Bali? Pre-vacation is a common time for clients to come in looking to treat leg veins.
We recommend giving yourself two to three months prior to your dream tropical vacation to go through treatment. This gives ample time for any treatment, including more involved varicose vein treatments. Even if you think you may be coming in for a less invasive spider vein treatment, we often find unexpected varicose veins on our ultrasounds.
The last timeline to take into consideration is when to fly. You also can’t take an airplane to your destination for at least 10 days after treatment, as there’s a risk of complications associated with flying.
3) Ultrasounds
This is what summer is best for in the sclerotherapy space. Ultrasounds are a key part of any sclerotherapy process, and if a clinic is offering treatment before providing an ultrasound, you should look elsewhere.
As we’ve mentioned previously, all our patients will have a consultation prior to Sclerotherapy. We commonly uncover varicose veins in these ultrasounds, so it’s an important step of the process. While spider veins are primarily aesthetically displeasing, varicose veins can cause pain and discomfort down the line. It’s our priority to address them.
Additionally, ultrasounds should be done standing. It changes the way the blood flows in your legs, so don’t trust results from an ultrasound done sitting or on a patient table.
July and August is a great time to come in, determine if your veins are varicose or spider veins, and plan a treatment schedule for the fall.
4) The quick summer (half) fix
If you’re looking to come in for spider or varicose vein treatments in May or June, we often won’t recommend it. There’s simply not enough time before the summer months to see the results you’re probably looking for.
However, if you’re looking for some slight improvement in appearance before the summer beach months, there are a couple options.
A single treatment in May or June will provide some modest improvement in vein appearance within a month. Treatment is always a multi-session process, so you’ll need to come back in the fall for additional sessions.
If you get treatment in the early summer, you’ll have a couple other factors to contend with. You’ll need to stay away from hot environments for 7 days post treatment, so that means no hot tubs or sunbathing at the beach. If we have a heatwave where temperatures break 30 degrees, plan to stay inside in an air conditioned environment. High temperatures can lead to complications veins can open up again
Most importantly, manage your expectations. For the first two to three weeks post treatment, your veins will look worse than they did before. By the one-month mark, the improvements will be modestly noticeable, but not a full fix.
