When you get pregnant, a lot of changes will take place inside and outside your body. Most of the changes that take place on the outside are usually annoying and no one welcomes them. One of the changes is occurrence of varicose veins. Why does pregnancy cause varicose veins? One of the main reasons why pregnancy causes varicose veins or makes them worse is because of the growing belly. As the belly grows during pregnancy, it puts a lot of pressure on a lot of organs in the body. The veins that transport blood through the body will also be strained which leads to pressure. It is this pressure that leads to the formation of varicose veins.

As the uterus gets bigger during pregnancy, it puts pressure on the inferior vena cava. This leads to the vena cava putting pressure on the veins that lead to the legs. During pregnancy, the volume of blood in the body usually increases. This also adds more pressure to the veins that lead to the legs. The walls of the veins that bring blood to the legs usually relax when they cannot keep up with the pressure on them this usually leads to the formation of varicose veins on the legs.

Varicose veins have been found to be hereditary by researchers who have carried out research. If your mother and grandmother developed varicose veins when they were pregnant, you have high chances of developing the varicose veins too. If you are overweight, you will also have very high chances of developing varicose veins when you get pregnant. Mothers who are carrying more than one baby during pregnancy usually have high chances of developing varicose veins because of the weight and the increase of pressure on the inferior vena cava. If this is not your first pregnancy and you have varicose veins in your previous pregnancies, you might also develop varicose veins in your present pregnancy.

Because the blood is too much in your body and you are putting on weight too fast due to the growing baby, your veins in the legs will have a hard time pushing blood back to the heart. This is because the leg veins will be working against gravity. The hormone progesterone, which is a hormone produced during pregnancy also adds to varicose veins being formed. There is nothing that you can do about varicose veins but you can prevent them from possibly occurring by not gaining more weight than you are supposed to during pregnancy and by engaging in exercises that are supposed to help with blood flow inside your body.