At first glance, visible blue veins on the breast may give you cause for alarm. Even if they don’t have any other symptoms that occur with their appearance, it’s understandable to think that any discoloration or blemish on your breasts can be a sign of something more serious.
So when should you worry about blue breast veins? Given the changes that the breast goes through with hormonal fluctuations, fashion choices, and age, noticeable veins on the breast are usually a visual condition and are no cause for alarm. However, if the marks appear suddenly and are accompanied by other symptoms, then the issue may be more serious than broken capillaries.
Why Do Spider Veins Form On The Breast?
Spider veins (or telangiectasia) can form in most blood vessels that experience some irregularities or damage with their blood flow or blood circulation. This can be caused by a variety of factors, but people who get a blue vein somewhere on their breast generally don’t need to worry about its appearance.
Because the skin around the breast is extremely malleable and prone to physical shifts during hormonal changes, breast surgery, or even just someone’s general lifestyle, it’s not uncommon to see some visible veins, especially on the underside.
But given the different causes that may lead to visible vein formation in the breast, your doctor will usually try to rule out more serious conditions before deciding to diagnose them as spider veins. There are a number of both benign and serious conditions that can affect the veins in your chest wall and cause them to bulge, and it’s important to get a correct diagnosis of your condition before starting on any sort of treatment.
Do Spider Veins Mean Breast Cancer?
One particular worry that a patient may have when seeing visible veins on the breast – especially if they have a family history – is whether or not it’s inflammatory breast cancer. Given that the vein wall found around the chest area can be full of feeder veins that can magnify the appearance of visible veins, this is a legitimate worry, though it’s not a likely cause.
More likely, any visible veins can be a sign that the blood vessel network in that area has experienced some sort of disturbance. In most cases, the cause can be easily identified – for example, if you’ve recently had breast augmentation that affected a reticular vein in the area. Other causes like Mondor’s disease can be a little more difficult to diagnose but are similarly no cause of alarm.
However, some conditions manifest in spider vein-like symptoms that require more immediate medical attention. A blood clot in the vein (while rare in the chest or breast area) can significantly affect circulation and can lead to life-threatening complications. If you feel any other symptoms with the spider veins in your breasts like swelling, discomfort, discoloration, or a burning sensation, get yourself looked at by a doctor immediately.
But if you’re still worried about the possibility that your spider veins can be a sign of breast cancer, you can also check with your doctor to make sure that isn’t the case. The important thing to keep in mind is that under no circumstances should you try to self-diagnose or medicate your spider veins.
Read more: Do Spider Veins Hurt?
How Can I Get Rid Of Spider Veins On The Breast?
If spider veins on your breast are something you’d like to remove (and the underlying cause has been confirmed by your doctor to not be serious) there are two methods of treatment that you can consider.
These treatments are especially effective since they’re designed to work on almost any type of spider vein, and they can be done with minimal hassle and discomfort on your part. Non-invasive and effective, they provide long-term improvements without a lot of short-term side effects.
Sclerotherapy
Sclerotherapy involves using a liquid agent to “fill in” the spider veins in an area, causing them to close in or scar on themselves. Since the liquid formulation travels easily through the blood vessel, it’s a particular favorite of patients who want to remove large areas of spider veins at once. The procedure only requires one or several injections of the solution in the affected vein, and you should see visible results soon after.
Laser treatment
For patients who don’t want to go through needle treatment, laser treatments are another popular method of removing spider veins. By using a special laser on the affected vein, this procedure causes the vein to clot, scar, then close in on itself, significantly minimizing or removing its visibility from your skin entirely. Like sclerotherapy, this procedure doesn’t take long and requires little to no postoperative downtime, so you can resume your normal activities after a day of bed rest.
Other methods of home management may be prescribed to you by your doctor after your procedure. It’s important that you only get these procedures done at a vein clinic or a specialist center since they have the tools, experience, and certification required to do a successful procedure.
Read more: Blue Light Therapy for Spider Veins: Does It Work?
Effective Spider Vein Treatment With The Vein Center Doctor
Veiny breasts can sometimes feel like a cause for alarm, but given the network of veins around the area, visible breast veins are usually perfectly normal and are no cause for alarm. While some conditions can result in prominent breast veins, most of the time they’re most likely going to be a spider vein or a varicose vein, which can easily be treated. While these treatments won’t permanently get rid of prominent veins on your skin, they’re an excellent way to treat a patient without harming the surrounding breast tissue.
With board-certified staff, The Vein Center Doctor can help you with any breast vein, chest vein, or any visible vein on your skin without any trouble. By using methods like foam sclerotherapy, laser treatment, and radioactive ablation, we’re able to get rid of any unwanted vein with no risk of damage to the treated vein or the surrounding area. With specialists in vein disease and vein conditions, you can easily find a diagnosis and treatment for any abnormal vein formations with us.
For more information about how to manage noticeable veins or to speak to a vein specialist, contact us today.
