Well the sun is out and it looks like summer is here at last.
And a question I get asked a lot is now I've had my veins treated when can I get them out
and get the sun on them?
Well let's face it is one of the commonest reasons people have their veins treated in
the 1st place.
To make their legs look better and to show their legs off.
Well there are 3 things you might want to consider.
The 1st is that after any vein treatment your legs will be a little sensitive to the sun.
There is a healing process is going on underneath the skin.
Although these treatments are minimally invasive there is a healing process which needs to
be completed and it takes several weeks and months.
And during that time certainly prolonged or intense exposure to sun can cause redness
and itching and discomfort.
And you might want to protect your legs from the sun during this time.
The 2nd reason you might wish to delay sun exposure is that your legs are not going to
look their best for a few weeks.
Now there's a lot of hype.
Some clinics regard these treatments as a lunchtime procedure - instant results.
Well in my experience it's just not true.
Sure your legs will look a lot better very quickly but there will be some bruising there
may be some discolouration and your legs probably won't look their best for about 6 weeks.
If you've had sclerotherapy particularly for thread veins the healing process can take
a long time and it may be several months if not a year or so before you see the final
improvement of your treatment.
The 3rd thing you may wish to consider is that after vein treatments there will be some
degree of brown discolouration of the skin.
Now some of this is true pigmentation.
It occurs whenever there is an inflammation or healing process either in the skin or nearby.
This inflammation or healing process stimulates melanocytes that produce melanin and they
become active and you may get some pigmentation along the course of treated veins.
A particular issue after sclerotherapy.
Some of it is due to bruising or little collections of blood under the skin.
And the haemoglobin does cause discolouration of the skin.
The technical term is haemosiderin.
And it is sometimes described as staining.
I don't like this term it implies there's been an accident and something has been spilt.
And that's not true.
It's all part of the process and some degree of brown discolouration is inevitable.
So your legs won't look their best.
Now this brown discolouration always goes - it is never permanent.
It is largely gone by 6 months but it can in some cases it can take up to 2 years to
go completely.
I've never seen any brown discolouration persist beyond 2 years.
But we do know that sunshine and intense UV exposure darkens this discolouration and it
takes longer to go.
So there you are.
Those are the things you may wish to consider about exposing your legs to sunshine after
vein treatment.
Now I hope you found this video interesting.
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