Varicose Veins: Should varicose veins be treated?
You may want to have a say in this decision, or you may simply want to follow your doctor’s recommendation. Either way, this information will help you understand what your choices are so that you can talk to your doctor about them.
Your options
Have surgery or a procedure to close or remove your varicose veins.
Try home care to improve your symptoms. You can exercise, prop up your legs when resting, wear support or compression stockings, and lose weight if needed.
Key points to remember
You may want to first try some things at home to reduce pain or other symptoms from varicose veins. You can wear compression stockings, prop up your leg (or legs) on a pillow or a chair when you can, get some exercise, and lose weight if needed. If these steps don’t help your symptoms, you may want to have surgery or a procedure.
Having surgery or a procedure is a better choice if you care a lot about how your legs look. Home treatment won’t change the look of varicose veins. Surgery and other procedures also can reduce pain and other symptoms.
Surgery can leave tiny scars on your legs.
The size of your varicose veins affects the type of treatment you might have. If you have larger veins, you are likely to have surgery (ligation and stripping) or less invasive procedures such as radiofrequency closure or endovenous laser treatment. Small to medium-sized varicose veins usually are treated with sclerotherapy, external laser treatment, or a minor surgery called micro phlebectomy.
Procedures that are used to close varicose veins and keep them from coming back seem to work about the same. These procedures include laser treatment, radiofrequency closure, sclerotherapy, and surgery.
Before you have any procedure, check your insurance to see if it covers the cost. Some policies do not cover procedures that are viewed as only being done for personal, not medical, reasons.