Do Varicose Veins Ever Go Away on Their Own?

Most people hope they will. A vein appears on the back of the calf, or an old one seems to be getting bigger, and the natural first thought is to leave it a while and see whether it settles. After all, plenty of things in the body do get better on their own.

So the question people type is simple: do varicose veins go away? The honest answer, for almost everyone, is no. Once a vein has become varicose, it tends to stay, and over time it usually gets a little worse rather than better. That is not a reason to panic. Most varicose veins are not dangerous, and many people live with them comfortably for years. But it is a reason to understand what is happening, so that waiting is a choice you make on purpose rather than a hope.

What follows is why they stay, the five things worth knowing before you decide to wait, the one situation where they really can fade, the signs that mean a vein should be seen quickly, and what treatment actually does to a vein that will not go away by itself.

Do varicose veins go away? The honest answer

Varicose veins are swollen, twisted veins just under the skin, most often in the legs. They can look like raised blue or purple cords, and they can come with aching, heaviness, itching, swelling around the ankles and cramps at night. Some people have all of that. Others have veins they can see and nothing they can feel.

Either way, the vein itself does not return to normal on its own. MedlinePlus states it plainly: varicose veins tend to get worse over time. The same page is just as clear that self-care can relieve the aching, help keep them from getting worse, and prevent more serious problems. Those two facts sit side by side, and both matter.

It helps to separate three things people often mean by “go away”:

The symptoms easing. This can and often does happen. Aching, heaviness and swelling can improve a great deal with the right habits, with compression, and after treatment.

The vein looking less obvious. This happens too, for a few hours at a time. A vein that bulges at the end of a long day on your feet can look much flatter after a night lying down. That is the pressure inside it dropping, not the vein healing.

The vein actually disappearing. This is the one that does not happen by itself, with one exception covered further down. A varicose vein disappears when it is treated: closed off or removed, so that blood takes a different route home.

Why they stay: it comes down to the valves

The veins in your legs have a hard job. They carry blood back up to the heart, against gravity, all day. To do that they rely on small one-way valves inside them, which open to let blood move upward and close to stop it falling back down.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute explains that weak or damaged valves or walls in the veins can cause blood to pool and even flow backward, which is called reflux. With blood collecting where it should be moving, the vein stretches, grows larger and twists. That is what a varicose vein is.

The important part for this question is what happens next. A stretched vein wall does not spring back, and a valve that no longer closes does not repair itself. Blood keeps falling back through the leaking valve every time you stand up, so the pressure that stretched the vein in the first place is still there. That is why varicose veins tend to persist.

The same institute lists what raises the pressure inside leg veins: age, pregnancy, carrying extra weight, sitting or standing for long periods, and an inactive lifestyle, with a family history raising the risk too. Some of those you can change, and changing them helps. None of them, once changed, closes a valve that has already failed.

Five things to know before you wait and see

Waiting is a perfectly reasonable choice for many people with varicose veins. These five points are what make it an informed one.

1. The vein will not repair itself. Whatever you do from here, a vein with a failed valve stays a vein with a failed valve. Everything that follows is about symptoms, speed and safety, not about the vein healing. Knowing that up front saves a lot of disappointment with creams, supplements and waiting it out.

2. They usually get worse slowly, and at very different speeds. Varicose veins tend to progress, but the pace varies enormously from one person to the next. Some people see little change in ten years. Others notice new veins, more swelling and, eventually, changes in the skin around the ankle, which is the point at which the problem is better described as chronic venous insufficiency. That skin change is worth watching for, because it means the pressure has been high long enough to start causing damage.

3. Looking better in the morning is not the same as getting better. Veins that bulge by evening often look flatter after a night lying down, and ankles that swell during the day are often slim again by morning. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute notes that symptoms tend to be worse after long periods of sitting or standing and better when you lie down or put your feet up. That daily rhythm is the pressure rising and falling. It is also why legs that swell by the end of the day are such a common companion to varicose veins.

4. Compression and good habits treat the symptoms, not the vein. Staying active, keeping a healthy weight, raising your legs, not sitting or standing still for hours, and wearing compression stockings can all make a real difference to how your legs feel. The same institute is candid, though, that compression therapy only relieves symptoms. What compression stockings can and cannot do is covered in detail, and the short version is that they help the leg without changing the vein.

5. The only way a varicose vein goes away is when it is treated. Procedures close off or remove the faulty vein, and the blood that was pooling in it takes another route. Even then, treatment deals with the veins that are there now. New varicose veins can form later, because the tendency that caused the first ones has not gone anywhere.

A note on the small, fine veins that sometimes appear alongside varicose veins: those are usually spider veins, a different and smaller problem, and how to tell varicose veins from spider veins is worth reading if you are not sure which you have.

The one real exception: after pregnancy

There is one situation where the answer to do varicose veins go away is a genuine yes, at least sometimes, and it is pregnancy.

During pregnancy the amount of blood in the body increases and the growing womb presses on the veins of the pelvis, both of which raise the pressure in the leg veins. Veins can appear or enlarge quickly as a result. When that extra pressure lifts after the baby is born, some of those veins settle back. The federal Office on Women’s Health notes that varicose veins may go away within a few months after childbirth, or they may remain and continue to cause symptoms, and that more can appear with each further pregnancy.

So even here it is a maybe, not a promise. And for most readers of this article, the veins in question did not start with a pregnancy, which is exactly why they have not faded.

When a varicose vein needs seeing quickly

Most varicose veins can wait for a routine appointment, or for no appointment at all. These cannot.

• A varicose vein that is bleeding
• Sudden swelling of one whole leg, with pain or warmth in the calf
• A hard, hot, red and tender cord along the line of a vein
• An open sore above the ankle that is not healing
• A sudden increase in pain or swelling, with redness of the leg or a fever

The first is an emergency. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute advises calling 911 for any bleeding from a varicose vein, because a vein under that much pressure can bleed heavily. While you wait, lie down, raise the leg above the level of your heart and press firmly on the spot. The second can be a clot in a deep vein and needs same-day assessment; the signs of deep vein thrombosis are worth knowing before you ever need them. The third is usually a clot in a surface vein, which also needs checking the same day to make sure it has not reached a deeper one. The last two need prompt care for a sore or a possible infection.

What treatment actually does

Once you know the answer to do varicose veins go away on their own, the next question is what would make one go. The answer is a procedure that deals with the leaking vein directly, and most of them are much smaller than people expect.

Assessment usually starts with a physical examination and a duplex ultrasound, a painless scan that shows how blood is flowing through the leg veins and which valves are leaking. That scan matters more than how the veins look, because the vein doing the damage is not always the one you can see.

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the aim of the procedures is to block or destroy the varicose vein that is causing blood to pool, which allows other veins to take over. The main options are:

Endovenous ablation, which uses laser or radiofrequency heat from inside the vein to close it, usually in a doctor’s office with the area numbed. How vein ablation works is covered on its own page.

Sclerotherapy, an injection of liquid or foam that seals the vein shut, most often used for smaller veins.

Phlebectomy, removing smaller veins near the skin through tiny cuts, often alongside ablation.

Surgery to tie off and remove larger veins, now generally kept for people who cannot have a less invasive procedure.

Most of these do not need a long recovery. Whether you are suited to one depends on what the scan shows, your symptoms and your general health, and who is a candidate for vein ablation walks through what a specialist weighs. For more on varicose veins in general, including how they are diagnosed, the full guide to varicose veins covers the condition from the start.

So, do varicose veins go away? Rarely on their own, and knowing that is useful rather than discouraging. It means you can stop waiting for something that is unlikely to happen and decide what you actually want: fewer symptoms, a vein that looks less obvious, or simply the reassurance that nothing more serious is going on. Each of those is achievable, and none of them depends on the vein fading by itself.

If you are not sure whether your veins are worth having looked at, a short symptom check takes about ninety seconds and will tell you whether it is worth booking.