Why Do My Legs Look Worse After Sclerotherapy? And Other Spider Vein Treatment FAQs

It’s perfectly normal and expected for your legs to look worse after sclerotherapy treatments, at least for a few weeks post-treatment. Sclerotherapy involves injecting a sclerosant medicine into the unhealthy spider veins. The sclerosant medicine irritates the spider veins’ walls and develops scar tissues that seal them shut, blocking off access to blood. The spider veins turn into scar tissues that are eventually metabolized by the body, following which they fade away from the skin’s surface.

The unhealthy spider veins will turn into scar tissues after sclerotherapy, so they will look darker and feel harder underneath your skin. You may also notice some redness, swelling, bruising, and mild staining of the skin around the injection site. These side effects are perfectly normal and temporary. The spider veins will gradually get metabolized by the body and fade away from your skin’s surface within three weeks. Your legs will look worse after sclerotherapy before getting better.

California Vein Treatment is led by Harvard-trained and board-certified vein doctors specializing in cutting-edge minimally invasive treatments for spider veins and varicose veins, including sclerotherapy treatments. Our vein doctors use the most advanced sclerosant medications to ensure safe and reliable results without unnecessary side effects or complications. Please schedule an appointment with our vein specialists in San Jose or San Diego today.

Sclerotherapy will always make your legs look worse before you get better. You may experience temporary swelling, redness, and bruising around the injection sites, and the closed veins will turn into scar tissues that will look dark underneath your skin. Your body generally needs a few weeks to resorb the unhealthy spider veins and scar tissues. You can expect your legs to improve within 3 weeks, but larger veins may also take 1 to 3 months.

Contrary to popular assumption, spider veins aren’t purely cosmetic — they’re often symptomatic of a dangerous circulatory disorder known as chronic venous insufficiency. Venous insufficiency is a medical condition wherein your vein valves collapse, and blood accumulates in the leg veins, leading to vascular dilation and the formation of spider veins and varicose veins. If you have underlying vein disease, your vein doctor must treat the root cause before performing sclerotherapy.

If your vein doctor treats spider veins without diagnosing or treating underlying vein disease, sclerotherapy treatments might not work. If there is an underlying vein that doesn’t work properly, the pressure from the incompetent vein will feed into the surface veins, leading to new spider veins. As such, even if your existing spider veins fade away, you will simply develop new spider veins and varicose veins, making the treatment pointless.

Our board-certified vein doctors in California perform personalized vein treatments to ensure the success of sclerotherapy. Our vein doctors administer venous ultrasound scans to determine if you have underlying vein disease. If you have venous insufficiency, the vein doctor will administer radiofrequency ablation, laser ablation, or venaseal treatments to remove the diseased vein, following which they will perform sclerotherapy. Our comprehensive approach to spider vein treatment ensures optimal results.

After your sclerotherapy treatment, your unhealthy spider veins will look darker and feel harder underneath your skin. This is an indication that the spider veins have turned into hardened scar tissues, which means the treatment is working. Over time, the scar tissues will be metabolized by the body and fade away from the skin’s surface. Smaller spider veins usually fade away in three to six weeks, but larger veins may take up to three months to disappear.

Compression stockings are skin-tight garments that apply pressure on your leg veins to support optimal blood circulation to the heart. They also prevent blood from accumulating in the leg veins. If you don’t wear compression stockings after sclerotherapy, more blood may accumulate in your leg veins, increasing the risk of spider vein recurrence. Compression stockings also minimize swelling and speed up the recovery process after sclerotherapy treatments.

The number of sclerotherapy treatments you need will depend on your specific condition. The more spider veins you have, the more sclerotherapy sessions you will need. Most patients need to wait approximately four to six weeks between sclerotherapy treatments, which is enough time for the results of the previous session to materialize.

There are no limitations to the number of sclerotherapy treatments. Your vein doctor will determine the number of sclerotherapy sessions you need after a thorough evaluation and physical examination. Most patients can remove all the spider veins within two to three sessions, but some patients may need up to four sessions for optimal results.

If you want to speed up the recovery process after sclerotherapy, you need to wear compression stockings regularly for at least two weeks. You should also walk frequently, avoid blood-thinning medications, and elevate your legs above your heart’s level while sitting down. If you have a desk job, be sure to take short breaks to walk around every 30 minutes.

Don’t ignore your symptoms

At Vein Treatment Clinic, we’ve got California fully covered with expert vein doctors and convenient clinics across the state.

Whether you’re in Huntington Beach, Irvine, National City, Newport Beach, Palo Alto, Poway, San Diego, San Jose, or Temecula, you’ll find advanced care at one of our clinics close to home.

Patients trust our Ivy League–trained, board-certified specialists for minimally invasive treatments that improve circulation, relieve pain, and restore confidence. In California, our team includes Dr. Farshid Etaee, Dr. Joshua Kindelan, Dr. Walter Lech, and Dr. Kimberly Mcfarland, dedicated vein experts you can rely on.

Book your consultation today at the clinic nearest you.