Varicose veins can have a number of symptoms. These can include the following:
- An achy or heavy feeling in your legs
- Burning, throbbing, muscle cramping, or swelling in your lower legs
- Itching around one or more of your veins
- Skin discoloration around a vein
- Worsened pain after sitting or standing long periods of time
- Veins that are dark purple or blue in color
What Are The Risk Factors For Developing Varicose Veins?
There are a number of factors that can raise your risk of developing varicose veins.
- Age. Aging causes wear and tear on the valves in your veins. Eventually, all that wear causes the valves to allow some blood to flow back into your veins. Once this happens, the blood collects there instead of flowing back up to your heart.
- Gender. Women are more likely to develop varicose veins. Hormonal changes during pregnancy and menopause tend to relax vein walls. Hormone treatment such as birth control pills may increase your risk of varicose veins.
- Pregnancy. During pregnancy, the volume of blood in a woman’s body increases. This helps to support the growing baby. This unfortunately can cause the veins in a woman’s legs to enlarge and weaken over time.
- Family History. Heredity is also a factor. If family members have developed varicose veins, it is likely that you will as well.
- Obesity. Being overweight also puts added pressure on your veins and can eventually lead to varicose veins.
Standing or sitting for long periods of time. Blood does not flow as well when you stay in the same position for extended periods of time.