Spider Veins
Treatment Overview

How Are Spider Veins Defined?

Spider veins are small, dilated veins just beneath the skin that are red, purple or blue. They’re aptly named for their spindly, branching quality, resembling spider legs, and their tendency to congregate in clusters like a spider web. They’re neither healthy, nor efficient at performing circulatory duties. They aren’t usually dangerous, but the condition behind them can be. Some patients’ spider veins are just a cosmetic nuisance. But many patients’ spider veins are linked to chronic venous insufficiency, which warrants a New York vein clinic visit.

What Typically Causes Spider Veins?

While several things cause spider veins, including sun damage, hormones, and weight gain, spider veins on the legs are typically caused by venous insufficiency. Veins have valves that act as one-way flaps, sending blood in a singular direction, toward the heart. But if a valve malfunctions, blood in the leg veins leaks down toward your feet. Over time, blood accumulates below the broken valve, which dilates the vein. Spider veins begin spreading out in various directions from that centralized pressure point in your vein. What causes valve malfunction and intravenous pressure? Several factors like aging, obesity, pregnancy, inactivity, and a genetic predisposition are involved. Females are highly susceptible to these veins known as telangiectasias, which might cause symptoms like itching, pain, restlessness, swelling, and heavy legs, or might have no symptoms at all. Our New York vein clinics offer corrective, therapeutic, and preventative measures to minimize spider veins.

Who Develops Spider Veins?

Genetics are often to blame for telangiectasias. Children can get spider veins, especially the types that occur on the face with conditions like rosacea or port wine stains. But spider veins in the legs are primarily found in adults, particularly those over 30 years of age. When progesterone and estrogen levels spike (as with pregnancy, infertility treatments, menopause, hormone replacement therapy, and birth control pills), vein walls become weaker, leading to enlarged veins. This dilation often prompts spider veins, which means over half of women have them. Both genders are prone to spider veins if they have a history of vascular disease or if they work in settings that require them to remain seated or standing for multiple hours at a time.

Which Spider Vein Symptoms Require a NY Vein Clinic Visit?

Patients without symptoms often visit New York vein clinics to erase their spider veins because they mar their skin’s appearance. Others visit our NY vein doctors because they’re exhausted by symptoms like heavy legs, burning or stinging, hyperpigmentation, pruritus, edema, cramps, and throbbing. Those with substantial venous insufficiency might have serious complications like slow-healing or infected ulcerations.

Why Do You Have Spider Veins?

If you notice spider veins spreading across your legs, you might have the common disease called chronic venous insufficiency. A singular spider vein at a location that sustained external trauma might be a broken superficial blood vessel. But several defective thread veins signify possible valve failure in a deeper vein. If you fit into the risk categories described above, vein disease should be considered before simply treating spider veins cosmetically at a NY vein clinic.

How Does a New York Vein Clinic Treat Spider Veins?

For some patients, treatment isn’t medically necessary, but it’s used to restore flawless skin on their legs. Sclerotherapy is one such aesthetic solution. But if your spider veins are painful, bleeding, or symptomatic, our New York vein clinics also investigate for signs of vein disease. Our cutting-edge, minimally invasive techniques treat the symptoms and appearance of telangiectasias. Discover your options below.