Yes, depending on the patient and the exact method used, facial vein treatment can be used on a woman who is five months’ pregnant. Facial veins are those small squiggly red lines (also called spider veins or telangiectasias) that appear on a person’s nose, cheeks or chin.
If the patient has a completely normal pregnancy, including no high blood pressure, premature contractions, high risk pregnancy, preeclampsia, infections or gestational diabetes, facial vein treatments can be considered. Treatment methods commonly used are injection sclerotherapy, microwave current, laser, Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) and Broad Band Light (BBL).
I would not recommend injection sclerotherapy because the injection of a chemical into the small face veins leaks a little into the mother’s main bloodstream. Microwave current, laser, IPL and BBL all affect just the superficial skin and are basically miniature burns without affecting the bloodstream or fetus, as long as no anesthetics are used. I would not recommend using anesthetics since a little bit, whether topical or local injection, leaks into the bloodstream no matter what. While lidocaine, a local anesthetic, can be injected into the skin of a pregnant person to remove a medically indicated skin lesion, I still prefer not to use any foreign substance if I don’t have to.
Microwave current is less painful than laser and much more effective and long-lasting than IPL or BBL. That is why I prefer and use the microwave modality for my own patients.
