Veins

[smile_jma]

So, my legs have a big artery size vein running down from my knee to my ankle (each) in the inner part. It's kind of unsightly. My arms are still somewhat veiny (especially when I get hot). I know that hormones are supposed to shrink them a little...but is there any way to get them to normal size?

Also, it appears that I have a lot of veins close to the surface of the skin...compared to other girls I check out. I can't see veins on their legs. I can when I look at mine. Ugh.

[Angélique LaCava]

I hav a long artery veins on my legs to and exactly where u hav them. I learn to ignore them, but mine arnt to bad n they also come n go they arnt there all the time.

[Jamie D]

Meh.  Veins don't have to be considered unsightly.

[Agenda Dysphoria]

My veins come and go too, they aren't too bad, but I don't really like them. I hope there's some way I can get them to stop being so pronounced at times

[Sarah Louise]

The veins in my legs have gotten worse as I age, as my diabetes gets worse, as my nerve damage gets worse and as the blood flow to my feet gets worse.

Large curvy veins, varicose veins, what look like bruise marks but are actually veins, etc.

And if they cut off the one toe (as they have talked about) then no more sandals for me.

[A]

Jamie, I don't know who that celebrity is, but her arms are very far from my definition of pretty...

smile_jma: As far as I know there's no reliable way to shrink that. You can avoid intense muscular effort where the veins are, but that's pretty much where it stops. Killing testosterone does have a very decent effect over time though. Unless I'm very hot or working very hard with my hands, my hand veins are almost invisible now, and they used to bother the heck out of me. My ankles though... they're full of brain-like, disgusting venis, as a result of more skin transparency. I just hide that. :p

Oh yeah, and HRT increases subcutaenous fat everywhere, while decreasing belly fat accummulations. If you're quite thin, once you've been on HRT for a while, gaining a bit of weight might help hide them.

Later, though, if you have a specific vein that doesn't go away and that really, really bothers you, maybe it can be removed at some medical aesthetics clinics. Basically they cause the vein to clog and die off, and the blood circulation just remakes itself around it. It's mostly done for unhealthy varicose veins, though, and I'm not sure if they'd do it for normal ones. But it's worth asking.

[smile_jma]

I don't know if I want to kill my leg veins, they seem pretty important since they're so big.  I want to wear shorts...but those veins are just so big (to me). Almost .6cm in diameter.

I am somewhat thin, but not..~ 52kg for a 161-163cm ish height. I'd call it perfect or I can stand to lose a kg or 2. I used to be 49. That was good.   ..Since 9th grade or so, I never strayed too far away from 108-110lbs, but now.. This is the heaviest I've been my whole life, at like, 114-116?

I agree, those arm veins (to me) are kind of disgusting...

[Jamie D]

Jamie, I don't know who that celebrity is, but her arms are very far from my definition of pretty...

smile_jma: As far as I know there's no reliable way to shrink that. You can avoid intense muscular effort where the veins are, but that's pretty much where it stops. Killing testosterone does have a very decent effect over time though. Unless I'm very hot or working very hard with my hands, my hand veins are almost invisible now, and they used to bother the heck out of me. My ankles though... they're full of brain-like, disgusting venis, as a result of more skin transparency. I just hide that. :p

Oh yeah, and HRT increases subcutaenous fat everywhere, while decreasing belly fat accummulations. If you're quite thin, once you've been on HRT for a while, gaining a bit of weight might help hide them.

Later, though, if you have a specific vein that doesn't go away and that really, really bothers you, maybe it can be removed at some medical aesthetics clinics. Basically they cause the vein to clog and die off, and the blood circulation just remakes itself around it. It's mostly done for unhealthy varicose veins, though, and I'm not sure if they'd do it for normal ones. But it's worth asking.

Angelina Jolie - she doesn't seem to mind.

[Nicolette]

Angelina Jolie - she doesn't seem to mind.

Never presume anything. I have features I never complain about which I hate and I'm self conscious about.

[A]

smile_jma: Doctors who do this are professionals. They'll simply not do it if if they think it would be harmful. But as I said, the body's circulation can re-do itself quite well.


Jamie: She may not mind, and it's all good for her if she doesn't, but how she feels about her veins does not change fact. Some celebrity may have a huge difformity and wear it with pride; it doesn't change the reality of it. If some people have their dysphoria/complexes made better by seeing that there exists a celebrity who has the same problem, it's all good, but I won't be fooled so easily.

[BunnyBee]

Hormones can help, in my case it totally fixed this 100% for me and I was really veiny before.  It's just such a ymmv thing that idk if you should even put much hope in for that.  Just saying it can happen tho.

[PHXGiRL]

So, my legs have a big artery size vein running down from my knee to my ankle (each) in the inner part. It's kind of unsightly. My arms are still somewhat veiny (especially when I get hot). I know that hormones are supposed to shrink them a little...but is there any way to get them to normal size?

Also, it appears that I have a lot of veins close to the surface of the skin...compared to other girls I check out. I can't see veins on their legs. I can when I look at mine. Ugh.

I have always been a very vascular. If you look at some of my old posts I actually started the same topic about 5 months ago with the same concerns because my veins just were not disappearing. I'm now just a few weeks over a year on HRT. I have been focusing on my arms for some time now just to track my vascularity change being on HRT because there was not any diffident answers to when loss starts happening.

I can say about the 11 1/2 month mark I started seeing a reduction and I am continuing to see a reduction. I can still see my veins but they are far from the hoses they once were. So hang in there love! They will go away just be patient.

[xchristine]

It means your built for speed....
You have superior blood flow...
Now if you remove them and you get older.
You might do more damage later....
Think about it...

[Jamie D]

Never presume anything. I have features I never complain about which I hate and I'm self conscious about.

It seems to me she could afford the best vascular surgeons money can buy.  I dare say, if you had the money to burn, you would get those things fixed.

Jamie: She may not mind, and it's all good for her if she doesn't, but how she feels about her veins does not change fact. Some celebrity may have a huge difformity and wear it with pride; it doesn't change the reality of it. If some people have their dysphoria/complexes made better by seeing that there exists a celebrity who has the same problem, it's all good, but I won't be fooled so easily.

I think, what I was getting at, is that we are, as a group, more focused on appearances than the general population.  It is completely understandable.  But having a body feature than is within normal variations should not excessive angst.

[Sarah84]

My veins on my hands and  forearms are strange, because the visibility varyes during the day. Sometimes they seem to be very visible and sometimes are hidden and look ok. I am verry skinny, BMI=17.9, so that is the reason why they are sometimes visible.

[A]

It means your built for speed....
You have superior blood flow...
Now if you remove them and you get older.
You might do more damage later....
Think about it...

Oh, dear, no. The reason why there are so many veins visible is that they're outside, and that they're a relatively low number of large veins instead of a relatively large number of small ones. Oh and of course, because there's a relatively small amount of subcutaneous fat for them to "live" in. As I said, if you remove a vein, your circulation won't be affected for more than a short while. The body's circulation fixes itself, and creates new veins as necessary. I'm not an expert, but I'm sure no specialized doctor would remove a vein if it could cause harm.

Jamie: I guess you're right, but it's important to take note that large, visible veins for girls is a pretty rare feature, so it's kind of on the end of the spectrum. I've never seen them in my own life. And also, it's important to take note that in a trans person, whether a feature can be somewhat normal is not everything. You may have a slightly masculine nose and be right when you say several women have such a nose and have no problem with it. But add to that a slightly masculine brow bossing, slightly lacking hips, a slightly large ribcage, relatively rare visible veins, etc. and you end up with a pretty negative portrait. One awful feature is not worse than ten slightly bad ones. Many people seem to disregard this. If they're happy in the delusion-ish state of mind, fine, but again, I'm not so easily fooled. In someone's appearance, 10 "masculinity +1" do the exact same effect, or are actually worse, than one "masculinity +10".

Since as trans women we all have quite a few of those +1's, I think it's entirely justified to be worried about them.

[Nicolette]

We could have dozens of masculine features possessed by one m2f transgender person, say: big jaw, gigantic chin, large nose, prominent brow, broad shoulders, barrel chest, big hands and feet and thick body hair. For each, we could find an example of one of these masculine feature in a genetic woman, but never all of them in the same genetic woman. If we all 'looked' like Angelina Jolie, including veiny hands, our worries would be simply over. We would gladly swap.

Apparently, veins get worse when we age too. And even genetic women don't like it. You're kidding?!

"When it comes to ageing, veiny hands are a telltale sign. Madonna and Angelina Jolie have both been photographed with prominent veins and now a growing number of women are putting their hands under the knife. Here, the first three women in Britain to have new cosmetic surgery treatment to remove the veins from their hands talk about their experiences."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-482988/So-vein-Hand-surgery-removes-tell-tale-sign-ageing.html

[Julo]

My veins in my underarms became very much smaller and also more fragile. It was mostly the year after surgery that it happened. Now I have difficulties with taking blood samples. I used to have really thick veins since I was a sport climber and later trapeze artist.

J