Are you seeing small blue or red veins spread out on your chest like tiny tree branches? These broken capillaries or thread veins, more popularly known as spider veins. They tend to develop more often in women than in men and increase in frequency with age. An estimated 30% to 60% of adults have spider veins or varicose veins. Given that it’s quite a common condition, it’s only natural to wonder how one develops these veins or if they are a cause for alarm.
So what do you need to know about spider veins in the chest? Spider veins are a flow-on effect of varicose veins in your nearby blood vessels and in comparison, spider veins are smaller and the blood vessel is red, purple, or blue in color. Those that are concentrated on the chest have been linked to an increase or fluctuation in hormones, particularly in women. It can also be a result of physical trauma causing damage to tissues. Hormonal changes related to pregnancy can lead to developing these visible blue veins in the trunk and chest of women.
If spider and varicose veins are prevalent in your family, chances are you will also develop them later on, especially as you age. However, there are other factors that increase your chances of having spider veins. These include carrying excess weight, being on your feet most of the time, lack of mobility, pregnancy, and leg injury. By themselves, spider veins are not dangerous, but the underlying cause can be. If left untreated, these veins can cause complications and become a serious threat to your health.
Some experts believe that spider veins are directly linked to underlying systemic diseases that you may already have. For instance, veins that are present in the torso are seen in patients that have Lupus, Scleroderma, Erythematous, fatty liver disease, or Cushing’s Syndrome. Patients who are being treated for deep vein thrombosis, high blood pressure, blood clot, pulmonary embolism, or liver cirrhosis may also experience bigger chances of developing spider veins on the trunk and chest.
A lot of people tend to think that spider veins are caused by poor circulation, which is not the case. It would be more correct to say that spider and varicose veins are the ones that cause bad circulation. This happens when blood pools in a certain section of the vein, which impedes circulation. Treatment by a phlebologist is the only way that this problem can be rectified. For short-term relief from thread vein pain or venous insufficiency in the leg area, you can wear compression stockings to support the vein wall and assist the blood flow more freely.
Also, while it’s true that spider veins are linked to hormonal changes in pregnancy, having spider veins alone is not an effective indicator of pregnancy. Spider and varicose veins in pregnant women usually appear in the first trimester when veins enlarge due to elevated hormone levels and blood volume. The enlarging of the uterus also puts extra pressure on leg veins. However, there are more conventional early indicators of pregnancy that are more accurate than a chest vein, such as missing your period and developing nausea. You’re far more likely to learn you’re pregnant long before you get any blue vein symptoms.
Breast augmentation is another factor in developing blue chest veins. After the procedure, patients will often notice these veins on the chest becoming more prominent. The reasons behind this vary, but the most likely is the trauma caused by the treatment. Chest veins become more visible and vessels more prominent among those who have had silicone or saline breast implants since their skin is stretched tightly over the new breast contours.
A breast vein near the surface of the skin can also have an adverse reaction to physical trauma, responding negatively to breast augmentation the way it would respond to any type of physical damage caused by hardening and enlargement. The hardening of the veins will go away eventually, but the enlargement of the vessels will most likely become permanent.
Read more: Do Spider Veins Go Away?
Your doctor will take your full patient profile into consideration when it comes to treating your spider and varicose veins on your chest and torso. The treatment method and approach will depend on the size and severity of the area being treated. If you have larger blue veins, especially on the torso, your doctor may recommend foam sclerotherapy, which involves injecting sclerosant into your problematic or affected vein. This will ultimately collapse the vessels, allowing the body to absorb them.
If you have fine red spider veins on the upper chest, the likely treatment is VeinWave, a non-invasive approach that uses a high radiofrequency device to pulse directed heat towards a problematic visible vein in order to make it collapse at the source.
The benefit of these treatments is that you don’t have to undergo full anesthesia to achieve the desired results for your treated vein. These are only outpatient treatments and performed in the comfort of your doctor’s office at the vein clinic. You can expect only minimal side effects, such as redness or swelling, which will disappear within a few days after the treatment. You can easily assume your daily activities the next day.
For more prominent veins or bulging veins that may be a sign of an underlying serious medical issue, your doctor will likely recommend a more invasive procedure such as phlebectomy, which will utilize a local anesthetic as the deeper vein is removed through small incisions in the problematic area.
Learn more: Spider Veins Treatment Costs: How To Make Spider Vein Treatment Worth It
Are you getting bothered by the spider veins or reticular veins that seem to be taking over your chest? Lay your vein disease fears to rest by visiting Vein Center Doctor, the preferred vein specialist in New York and New Jersey. The clinic has the best solutions for vein-related problems such as unwanted vein, feeder veins, abnormal vein, bulging leg vein and hand veins, and facial spider veins. You can also seek help for problems with your superior vena cava, telangiectasia, Call now for your spider vein treatment and varicose vein treatment and work towards reclaiming your confidence from veins and pains.
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