Eight weeks after my first treatment at Veincentre Manchester I returned to the clinic for a follow up sclerotherapy session.
Most patients need at least a couple of treatments; I’m not sure yet whether I’ll have a third to get the optimum result for my legs – we will see in about six weeks’ time how things are looking.
In the meantime, Dr Krishnan was very pleased with the improvements so far. We talked about my plans to begin hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as soon as possible and agreed I would wait about six weeks. (If you are already taking HRT you can have the procedure but would need a blood thinner as there is a slightly increased risk of deep vein thrombosis or DVT.)
Results So Far
Before both treatments we took some photos for comparison purposes.
You can see November ’22 on the left, compared to January ’23 on the right and that the raised vein behind my left knee is looking a lot flatter and less prominent. Still a little lumpy and with brownish staining, this should settle and fade given a bit more time and I am really happy with the way things are going! The veins on my right leg are also diminishing quite significantly.
The top of my right thigh was another area of concern to me with a large patch of spidery veins, however they too are disappearing nicely as you can see if you compare left to right:
Similarly a cluster of thread veins on one calf is looking so much better.
Sclerotherapy Session Two
Originally I had a combination of foam sclerotherapy for the larger veins and microsclerotherapy for the smaller ones, however this time I only needed microsclerotherapy.
Although during treatment it looks like some veins disappear with immediate effect, generally it takes several weeks for most of them to shrivel up and fade away.
This time it felt a bit less extensive and consequently the after-effects have been very minimal. The doctor said that itching can sometimes occur soon afterwards, so I bought some antihistamine tablets just in case, but didn’t need them. I didn’t experience any tenderness this time and a couple of weeks later, I just have a few tiny bruises.
Even the compression stockings you have to wear for 1-2 weeks, and which I found a bit irritating previously, haven’t bothered me nearly as much this time. It’s just part of the process if you want the best result – there’s no point in having sclerotherapy if you aren’t going to take the after care seriously!
I wouldn’t want to wear them in the summer though, so this is the perfect time to begin treatment – then when the warmer weather comes, your legs will be looking their best.
I’m absolutely thrilled with how things have gone so far, it has been exciting noticing the improvements in recent weeks and I look forward to wearing my shorts and summer dresses with a new confidence!
I’ll be sure to give a further final update for those interested in this fantastic treatment – in the meantime if you have any questions about my experience you are welcome leave a comment or DM me on any of my social channels.
