I want legs like these. Photo: Getty
From the front my legs look normal. Thanks to years of
But turn around, and the picture isn't pretty: The backs of my legs are laced with bulging veins – a network of blue, red and purple capillaries that call to mind the squiggles of a relief map...of the Rocky Mountains.
It didn't used to be this way. Up until age 25 I wore skirts with relish, and in college, nearly inappropriately. At the first sign of spring, I wore short shorts. I was a walking, talking Nair commercial.
But everything changed in my mid 20s. It was then that, after a few years of taking birth control pills, I saw my first visible veins. Whispers of icy blue, they were barely perceptible and covered up with a little self tanner, which I used by the boatloads.
But over the years, they grew bigger and more bulging, feathering off into tiny spider veins that seemed to pop up daily. After gaining 40 pounds while pregnant with my son, even though I've lost most of the baby weight, my legs have reached the point of no return – no shorts, ever again.
I'm not alone.
According to The US Department of Health & Human Services, 50-55% of American women and 40-45% of American men suffer from vein problems. Ranging from web-like spider veins, to bulging varicose veins, they're brought on by a variety of factors like weight gain, hormonal changes, and pressure, but they ultimately come down to your genes. If a close relatives suffers from protruding veins, you're more likely to also.
"At twenty, 20% of women may see them, at 50 it's 50% and by age 70 it's 70%," says Luis Navarro, M.D.
Over the last eight years, I've asked just about every new doctor or dermatologist I've seen if there was an easy way to fix my legs. They all said no. Because my varicose veins appeared large, they suggested that I undergo a procedure called "stripping," during which the veins are surgically removed from the legs, which includes anesthesia and a pretty heavy recovery time, and is not something I'm willing to do.
Each doctor assured me that the less invasive vein treatment procedure, called sclerotherapy, which involves injecting the veins with a solution that dries them up, would not help my legs.
Well, it turns out they were wrong.
I met Dr. Navarro late last year. A pioneer in the field of vascular surgery, he runs The Vein Treatment Center on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and is a general surgeon who specializes in veins, and only veins. After running a battery of tests on my legs, Dr. Navarro concluded that my large veins were not essential veins, and would respond to sclerotherapy.
And guess what, they are! Over the next few weeks, I'm going to rely the story of my treatments (with, shudder, pictures) and how by this summer -- or maybe earlier -- I'll be wearing shorts again.