Do any of you have significant varicose veins, and if so, did losing the weight reduce them at all? I'm curious as to whether mine will stay enlarged when I get banded and lose weight, or if they will shrink a bit.

I am interested in this too. I have just a few mostly on the top of my feet and one bulge on the center of my shin. The bulge is the one that I would like to see go away. Sometimes it looks very bad and I like to wear shorts.

I'm hoping the weight loss will shrink mine. It is in my inner thigh down to just below my knee. I had the other removed years ago and it was a very painful surgery. Even if the vein doesn't shrink, I probably will live with it. But I'm hoping!

Since it doesn't sound like you have a serious problem with varicose veins, surely surgery isn't the only answer. My mom had a couple of varicose veins and the doctor injected them with a sclerosing agent that collapsed that spot and the bulgin vein disappeared. Now, she passed away a few years ago and it was some years before that but......

Mine is too big to be injected, but perhaps it would shrink down to the point where it could be.

I have varicose veins, and they were not affected by my weight loss. There are newer procedures, some covered by insurance, some not. The sclerotherapy mentioned above is not covered by insurance at Vein Clinics of America (in MD and DC area I think) and runs about $450 per hour.

However I had a procedure called Venus Closure (done at the same Vein Clinic). It is different from stripping, and not really painful. They had a TV mounted on the ceiling and I got to pick out a movie to watch. It is covered by insurance (I don't know if all insurances do, but my Blue Choice covered it, except for copay and compression stockings) but it only closes the greater and/or lesser saphenous vein. Anything else has to be done with sclerotherapy. I had the closure done on both legs, but can't afford the sclero treatments, so I just live with them. I walk around 4 miles almost every day, so I am sure that helps the circulaton, but losing 100 pounds didn't rid me of varicose veins. Sorry to burst your hope bubble.

Edited June 29, 200917 yr by PATCHELTON

Well thanks for the info. I dont think I will do anything about it but it would be nice if the one looked a bit better. I guess as long as it does not look worse.

I went recently to check on removing my vericose veins & have several spider that I wanted removed. The doctor said to wait until I loose some more weight becasue as I loose & the skin becomes thinner more veins are gonna show up.

Good Luck!!