You like to think of yourself as a creative spirit, one that takes each of life's lemons and makes lemonade (preferably with some sort of alcohol involved). Yes, indeed, you pride yourself on your creativity, and balk at those who say you're just plain weird.

Even more people called you weird when you decided to write a poem about your spider veins. Most people in your situation wouldn't embrace their spider veins, they would do everything they could to get rid of them. Have you, Oh Creative One, ever heard of a dermatologist?

Oh, dermatologists, you laugh in the face of all dermatologists who would dare try to eradicate your spider veins! Clearly your friends, and indeed dermatology profession, have been misinformed about your oddness. Don't they understand that each new mark on the body is a keynote of life? Each and every spider vein, mole, what have you, can be a potent muse!

You sit down at your desk, and contemplate how you might honor your veins. How might you personify them? To compare them to spiders is far too trite. Just when you think that you can't think anymore, the though occurs to you: Why not compare them to a lover, ravaged by age, but forever indelible upon your skin?

Oh, you're too much of a genius for your own good - no really, don't be humble, you are! Two hours and several pieces of scrap paper later, you've completed your ode. To all those who might smirk at your ode, you obviously, and quite simply, laugh in their face.

You have a busy lifestyle, and part of that busy lifestyle includes jogging. You love jogging before work, after work, and on weekends. In addition to that, you attend aerobics classes at a local gym. Your friends wonder how on earth you've managed such dedication. You don't think of it so much as dedication, as it is a way for you to keep fit and combat stress.

However, in recent months you've started seeing spider veins and effects of exercise. You obviously are really not too thrilled with this recent discovery, and you want to know why spider veins and effects of exercise have taken their toll on your skin. After all, you want to look your best in those short-shorts you have!

Spider veins and effects of exercise affect the skin in several different ways. It is important to note that the root causes of both have to do both with genetics, the exercises that you participate in, as well as the frequency. The veins on your legs might come from the frequent pounding your legs have to withstand when you are running. They also might have happened because of a circulatory issue.

While spider veins and effects of exercise are indeed often associated with each other, it is important to note that they can be very separate things. If, for example, you are interested in weight lifting, and you frequently strain the skin on your upper arms, you will see stretch marks. Stretch marks happen when the skin is stretched beyond its capacity. Many people associate stretch marks with pregnancy and weight loss or weight gain, but in fact exercise can be a significant culprit.

Although you're angry, you're also almost on the verge of laughing. How ironic that you've been exercising to improve your appearance, when it's actually causing irregularities in your appearance! Your dream is to meet a handsome, wealthy guy at the gym. Just how are you going to accomplish that if you look like you've been in a fight with your skin, and your skin won? You consult your physician on what you should do.

Your physician points out that while it's great that you have been so interested in exercising, you've also been exercising way too much. Twice a day is a little extreme, don't you think? One hour of exercise per day, being certain to day a day off out of the week, is more than enough.

You nod, but what about the stress? Your doctor suggests yoga or drinking tea. Also, are you getting enough rest? You admit you aren't. So, armed with the newfound knowledge that you'll have to actually get more than 2 hours of sleep per day, you start cutting back on your hectic exercise routine.

It's a couple of weeks later, and you have to admit that you're pleased with how your skin looks. The veins and stretch marks are lightening, and you've developed a love of peppermint tea. While you've cut back on your exercise, that doesn't mean you still don't go to the gym regularly for a casual stroll – Mr. Right's got to be in the weights section somewhere!

You used to take pride in your lovely long legs. You noted that they were neither too fat, nor too skinny, and they were certainly quite long. You delighted in wearing short skirts to show them off. Thinking back on it, your legs should have been insured!

While your legs are back to their former glory, you still sometimes get flashbacks involving your spider leg veins before photos. Your legs started to lose their luster in your mid-thirties. You were lounging by your pool, and saw one of those dratted little things winding its way around your calf.

Unfortunately, that was also the day that your husband decided to take a picture of you with your child on your lap. That picture has since banished into the box labeled "Spider Leg Veins Before Photos". Yes, maybe that's odd, but you admit that you're vain (no pun intended).

Needless to say, you were in denial about those unsightly marks on your legs, and continued to wear your short skirts, sans nylons too! Thinking back on it, family and friends were just being polite in not mentioning them. For the next few years, any pictures that were taken of you at an event were spider leg veins before photos.

Finally, you realized that something needed to be done. You went to see the dermatologist, who took numerous spider leg veins before photos, and you cringed with each click. After some reconstructive surgery, your legs look fabulous again. It's time to go shopping for even shorter skirts!

You fondly remember the days when you were exercise-conscious. You were a gymnast in high school and even went on to compete during college. The Olympics were never an option (you liked to think that they were simply "not your style") but still, you could do backbends faster than any other girl on the team! Plus, you prided yourself on the fact that never once did your underwear peek out from your leotard.

Oh, those were the days – the days before you started suffering from pelvic congestion. You have no idea how the condition started, but the fact is that you're pretty upset it has. Your pelvic congestion problems came to light a year or two ago, when you and your husband started trying for a baby.

You'd never given it too much thought when you experienced discomfort during sex with your husband – you thought it was just because he was so well-endowed. Oh, if only it were that! You had a couple of what you thought were varicose veins from your gymnast days, and they were treated as such, until a second opinion landed you with the pelvic congestion diagnosis.

Specifically, you were told that pelvic congestion is caused by pelvic vein leakage, which constricts blood flow to the heart. This condition can also end up affecting your uterus and ovaries, and you definitely don't want that happening. You've always said that (aside from being a gymnast – yeah right) motherhood was the vocation you most wanted to do.

So, the doctor (such a lovely man) that diagnosed this annoying condition has now referred you to a specialist. The specialist tells you that, as it stands, hormone treatment might help, as might radiation. Well, that would be fine, you think, if you weren't trying to have a baby!

The news gets a tad bit worse, when the specialist informs you that, as a last resort, a hysterectomy might be needed. Your legs twitch (hey, they're still flexible!). You can tell that they desperately want to kick this specialist in the face.

Well, no way are your dreams of having a biological child going to be dashed because of this. You take no precautions, and have some of your eggs frozen before treatment starts. As for your husband, well, it will be quite easy to get him to contribute. Who knew that those dirty magazines he tried to hide in his nightstand drawer could actually be of some help!

You begin the hormone treatment. You'd always had terrible PMS, so you wonder if it will only exacerbate the problem. You think about getting your husband a suit of armor just in case. Well, the hormone treatment worked only a little, and so it's on to radiation.

Thankfully, this treatment has worked, and your specialist has informed you that a hysterectomy won't be needed. You consider hugging him (hey, those arms are still kind of toned!). Oh, what the heck, you do hug him. Once the treatment is safely eliminated from your body, it's back to baby making, and maybe gymnastics.

When a woman looks at her legs, it is usually to see if they look good in a certain outfit, or if they look healthy. Of course, women also have to look at their legs when they are shaving them! Seriously, though, many women take their legs for granted and give them a lot of wear, and the results can sometimes be in the form of various vein irregularities.

Spider veins are a good example of this, and the important thing to discern is whether or not these kinds of veins will need/ spider vein treatment. In order to make such a decision, the woman (men can get these kinds of veins too, but it is more likely for a woman to get them) has to have a better understanding as to what causes these veins in the first place.

The one good thing about spider veins is that they are instantly recognizable. A woman does not have to look down at her legs, see them for the first time, and then spend a long time trying to figure out what they actually are. These kinds of veins are thin and scraggly like the legs of a spider (hence their name). They can be dark purple, dark red, or reddish purple. As for where they are located, it really can be any area of the leg. However, they have a tendency to form on the upper thighs.

Part of determining what the right spider vein treatment would be for any given situation is in determining what caused the vein in the first place. These kinds of veins are caused whenever an excess amount of pressure is placed on these veins. With the added pressure comes a hindrance in the amount of blood that is able to successfully flow through these veins. Thus, so that the blood can flow successfully through the veins, the walls of the veins start to swell and become visible through the leg.

What places all of this extra pressure on the veins? An excess amount of weight. It is important to note that while basic obesity can definitely cause spider veins, they are more often caused by the extra weight that naturally occurs during pregnancy. One way that pregnant women can prevent these veins from happening in the first place is by wearing shoes that have plenty of support, and relaxing with their feet elevated for at least fifteen minutes a day.

Exercise is another thing that can place excess pressure on the veins, especially if a woman likes to run. It is alright if the woman is wearing athletic sneakers that are specifically designed for running. However, if she happens to be wearing other kinds of shoes (like tennis shoes, for example) then that is not protecting her legs from the repeated impact of the feet hitting the ground while running.

Usually, the spider vein treatment that is used involves medicinal injections. However, the woman might require laser spider vein treatment if it has been determined that spider veins are the result of circulatory problems rather than just cosmetic annoyances.