GynoFiles

Pains in your legs may mean that you have deep vein clots. There are physician performed tests, office tests and radiologic studies that can determine whether you have one of these clots. For women who have suffered a clot it's important to understand if you have a medical or genetic condition that could have led to these clots. Many blood factors lead to proper blood clotting, which we need to heal from cuts. But imbalances in some of these factors can predispose us to clot risk. Some factors cause clots: so you don't want to much of them, others prevent clots, you need enough of these factors. Protein C and Protein S are vitamin K dependent regulatory factors that can, if deficient, predispose us to clots. But a woman may be deficient because genetically she cannot produce the right amount or type of these factors.  In fact a woman who is Protein S deficient has about a 50% risk of developing a clot before age 50, but unfortunately, most women with these conditions don't ...

As I write I'm propping my legs. Getting off your feet and getting circulation going to the heart is important. Most of us assume that if we have swollen ankles or bulging veins we were just in the dancing shoes a bit too long and a bit of a prop is all we need. And yes those two extra smores (my homage to Girl Scouts everywhere since it was the first recorded recipe ever for them in the 1927 Handbook! Anyone want to sell me a copy?) I ate couldn't have helped. Who knew chocolate and graham crackers have so much salt! As your gyno I tend to look even deeper for the source of your leg problems: ovarian cysts, constipation, blood clots, enlarged uteri, and cases of torsion or varicosities of the  pelvic veins as well as deep venous disease or blood clots. But eventually if, more commonly, nothing is found but venous insufficiency syndrome and unsightly leg veins, we can talk about the fix. More on that later!