Need advice!!

My elder sister is 207 lbs. She tried dieting and exercise but she didn't lose much weight. Recently she started saying that her legs are paining very badly. I have heard that people with overweight tend to have varicose veins so I checked her legs to see if she has swollen veins but I couldn't find any. Because of her fear I have called and talked with a GP. He said obese people don't realize they have varicose vein as the swollen veins won't be visible on the surface of the skin due to their excess fat. So I'm thinking of taking her for varicose vein treatments from a clinic in Toronto. But she is concerned about her overweight and is researching about weight loss surgery. She says it would be better to treat varicose vein after weight loss. What do you say? Any idea regarding this? No one in our family has varicose vein, so we don't know anything regarding the treatment.

In the US, when think you have vein disease - you go to a specialist and they do ultrasounds to check the health of the values in the veins in your legs.  When those values fail to close, which can be detected on an ultrasound, the veins need to be removed.  Bulging veins are a sign that the valve are no longer functioning. but they do not removed them unless the ultrasound shows they have failed.  Take your sister to get them checked out.  The doctor will tell you to get them done or wait. 

The ultrasound showed that the values in my veins were not working so, I had them them done - it is somewhat of a myth that i is caused mostly by overweight - there is a large genetic component.

Varicose veins are more than cosemetic issues- the blood pressure in side the veins is higher and that is not good.  So, make the appointment and have her checked out = there is no need to wait until she loses the weight to get the initial exam.

Good luck

PS If she is thinking of WL surgery, she can post how you start nvestigating tht in Canada here - there are alot of people on OH that are familiar with the process in Canada

Pain in her legs doesn't have to be varicose veins.  my mother was having pain in her legs, and she was not overweight at all.  Turned out that she had arterial blockage in both of her legs and needed a bypass.  Bifemoral Bypass

She was in her 50s and weighed right around 110 pounds, but was a smoker with a history of high cholesterol.  

Losing weight is good for many reasons, and may be something that can help her, but leg pain isn't always just about varicose veins.  You may want to have her talk to her doctor and have an ultrasound done.

If she is going to have WLS, do it first and lose tge weight, then address the veins. Veins will change a lot after massive weight loss. And obese individuals grow extra veins to share the workload.

There are a lot of theries to close or remove excess and bad veins. EVLT, scerotherapy, etc. A vein specialist will tell her what she needs. But she'd be better off losing the weight first.

I had a great deal of leg pain especially in my calves.  I did not have varicose veins but the pin went away with weight loss. Turned out I was also retaining a tremendous amount of water