What CAN I do about the ugly, lumpy veins in my legs? Top surgeon reveals the treatments that actually work… and the one to avoid

As an actor, David Tag was used to having all eyes on him — but there was one part of his body he was desperate to keep under wraps: the unsightly varicose vein which snaked down his leg from his groin almost all the way to his knee.

The Hollyoaks star, 40, first noticed a visible vein on his upper inner thigh a decade ago, but tried to ignore it.

It was only after it continued to grow — and started to cause him embarrassment and pain — that he decided seek medical attention. 

‘When it got hot or when it got cold it was painful, and to touch it was quite sensitive,’ he explained, adding that it caused him the most discomfort while playing with his two young sons, or after exercising. 

The vein was so large and so unsightly that it even began affecting his work, and while filming for the Channel 4 soap he would position himself in a way that cameras wouldn’t catch a glimpse of his lumpy thigh. 

‘If I had to take my clothes off for certain scenes, I would try and hide it,’ he said.

‘I wanted to do the scenes so I would just position myself in a certain way so they couldn’t see it.’

Varicose veins aren’t an uncommon complaint; it’s estimated that up to a third of Britons suffer from the condition, which is caused by faulty valves in one of the main veins affecting blood flow to the legs. 

Hollyoaks actor David Tag recently opened up about his vein removal on This Morning 

Mr Tag’s leg before the hour-long procedure, he had noticed the vein growing for a decade

Within just weeks of the procedure, Mr Tag’s unsightly and painful vein had gone

The extra pressure on the vein causes other veins in the legs to become engorged with blood and deformed, further exacerbating the issue.

However Mr Tag is now rid of his unsightly varicose vein — just weeks after undergoing a removal procedure at the Veincentre clinic in Knutsford, Cheshire. 

He said he is delighted with the result, adding: ‘Now, you wouldn’t even be able to tell it was there.’ 

Dr Ananth Krishnan is the specialist from Veincentre who treated Mr Tag, removing his veins in a £3,350 Endovenous Laser Ablation (EVLA) and foam sclerotherapy procedure which took less than an hour. 

He told the Daily Mail: ‘He had very impressive varicose veins for such a young man, particularly for somebody who’s in the limelight, working in showbiz, who’s very body conscious.  

‘He had been hiding them by not showing his legs or wearing shorts. 

‘Within eight to ten weeks they started getting better, and a few months on they were gone completely.’ 

With some 23million Britons suffering from varicose veins, only the worst cases receive treatment on the NHS.

These, Dr Krishnan explained, are usually complex cases ‘where people have either had an ulcer [a wound that can develop on the vein] or they’re bleeding from it’. 

Meanwhile, patients with varicose veins who complain of feeling ‘tiredness, aching, swelling, throbbing’ are left to put up with the discomfort — or seek private treatment. 

‘The problem won’t go away on its own. For all intents and purposes, these veins are dysfunctional.

‘The veins in the legs, particularly, more than other veins, are constantly fighting gravity — the blood has to go up while gravity is pulling the blood down — and it puts a lot of pressure on the valves at the backs of the legs and the groin. 

‘Once you’ve got a leaky valve, the pressure is going to gradually build up. Veins are like balloons, and over a period of time, gradually they begin to stretch.’

Dr Krishnan told the Daily Mail that the methods for removing the ugly veins — which are most commonly found on the thigh — have come a long way. 

Not long ago, the main technique — known as stripping — involved making an incision in the leg, while the patient is under a general anaesthetic, and pulling the problematic vein out. 

However this required weeks of painful recovery — and it wasn’t always successful.

Varicose veins are found on the legs, and are caused by faulty valves

NHS chiefs the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence no longer recommend the procedure but some clinics do still offer stripping despite evidence it is a less effective option.

There is also sclerotherapy, where a substance is injected into the problematic blood vessel to make it collapse. 

‘It’s chemical that causes the veins to become slightly sticky and lumpy, and then they kind of dissolve gradually and eventually disappear,’ said Dr Krishnan. 

Modern-day varicose vein treatment usually combines sclerotherapy with an EVLA procedure which uses a millimetre-thick fibre optic cable to seal up the problem veins in less than an hour — with minimal down time.

He explained: ‘The only way to fix varicose veins, for want of a better word, is to destroy them, to basically get them out of the system. 

‘Thankfully, these days we don’t have to do stripping. Rather than pull them out or surgically remove them, we make a tiny needle puncture on the skin surface, introduce a laser fibre into the vein and actually destroy the underlying vein by using heat.’ 

After the leg is injected with local anaesthetic and the vein is numbed, a cable is inserted in to the problematic vein and then heated up. 

‘The tip of that laser fibre gives off enough heat to seal the vein shut,’ he said. 

Varicose veins are easily treatable with a mixture of Endovenous Laser Ablation (EVLA) and foam sclerotherapy

‘You’re achieving the same result as if you had taken the vein out by sealing it shut to the body. It’s then absorbed into the blood, like a bruise.

‘Effectively, everything is done through needles. You’re not pulling anything out.’ 

Dr Krishnan explained that despite seeming quite young to be suffering from varicose veins, Mr Tag was typical of the sort of patient seeking his help. 

‘Our clients are usually aged between 30 and 50, and often they have jobs where they are on their feet all day — teachers, hairdressers, police officers and actors. 

‘The veins are caused by defective valves in the veins, and quite often there is a family history of them, but it can skip generations. 

‘Women are most often affected as they can be made worse by pregnancy.’ 

He added that being overweight can also increase your likelihood of developing them due to putting excess pressure on the vascular system.

‘Progression really depends on a variety of factors, but undoubtedly they do progress. 

‘It’s only a matter of time before it gets to a point where the pooling in the blood starts to give rise to symptoms. You get pain, you get discomfort, get aching. 

‘You will need intervention to get rid of them, the valves don’t just sort themselves out.’