It’s been the most scorching summer so far and, naturally, people have their legs out as they dress to stay cool and catch a tan. And, for the first time in years, those people include me.For much of my life the thought of this kind of exposure has horrified me. Over the years I have been so self-conscious about my ‘old lady legs’ – with their wriggly varicose veins – that I’ve hated the thought of having them on display.I’ll be 60 this year but, to my dismay, I first noticed varicose veins appearing in my late 20s. It’s a myth they’re caused by crossing your legs or being overweight. The most likely reason for getting them is genetics and since both my parents had them, they were almost certainly going to pop up on me too.These veins appear because they have lost their elasticity and, as a result, bulge with blood (I know – I wince too.) The valves in the vein then become weak and allow blood to flow the wrong way back through it, until over time, the vein becomes wider to cope with the extra volume – resulting in the ‘lumpy leg’ look.The strange thing is that in an age when people are happy to talk openly about things such as wrinkles and hair loss, we are still oddly reluctant and embarrassed to discuss our varicose veins.Yet one in three of us is affected, usually between the age of 30 and 50, and women are twice as likely to get them as men, most likely because pregnancy is also a major cause. However, mine appeared very early and way before either of my two children arrived.I’m 5ft 8in and had a great set of long, slim pins in my teens and early 20s that I loved to show off.But the moment I spotted the veins I started hiding them beneath thick, opaque tights, jeans and trousers. Claire first noticed varicose veins on her legs in her late twenties. The most common cause is genetics The 'blue worms' knocked Claire's confidence. The veins lose their elasticity and therefore bulge with blood Claire Ciscotti and her family. Claire used to wear trousers or tights to cover her legsHaving my legs covered in unsightly ‘blue worms’ at such a young age really knocked my confidence. On the first few days of a holiday, when my legs were pale and pasty, I would stay around the pool with a sarong perfectly in place and then wear linen trousers in the evening.In my early 30s, I decided enough was enough. For some reason they seemed to bother me more than they did any of my boyfriends but turning 30 was the catalyst for getting them done.It was such a milestone birthday, I couldn’t do anything about getting older but I could sort my ugly left leg out (at the time it was far worse than my right) and so paid to have it fixed privately using my company health insurance.This was the late 1990s when the procedure was done under general anaesthetic as the veins were physically stripped from your legs. I had 16 removed in total, cut away from the back of the knee.At first I was alarmed at the idea of losing my veins but, actually, we can easily afford to. We have hundreds of superficial ones and getting rid of the ones that have become unsightly and swollen won’t impact circulation.The experience was pretty horrific. After spending a night in hospital I went home heavily bandaged from groin to ankle and had to be looked after by my then-boyfriend. The poor guy had to help me redress my painful oozing wounds. Not exactly what you want in a relationship when you’re both young.I returned to work during the second week, but had to sit with my leg hoisted up on the desk, dressed in joggers or ‘apartment pants’ as I called them (it was the height of the Friends era and fans of the show will know exactly what I mean).The problem with varicose veins is that it’s a progressive condition. The ones you have stripped out are permanently gone but that doesn’t stop new ones developing and, by my mid-40s, I had even more of them and this time it was my right leg bearing the brunt.It was severe enough to be treated on the NHS. By this stage I’d left London and was living in the countryside, where I had a wonderful GP who suggested the procedure as they had become particularly bad after the birth of my second child.I had my leg done at Crawley Hospital, still under general anaesthetic when, once again, the veins were simply stripped away. This time, I went home the same day.Kids don’t stop running around and making demands on you just because you have a sore, bandaged leg though and the whole thing felt harder still this time around with a three-year-old and a seven-year-old.Worse, I knew they were likely to reappear, so even though I loved my newly smooth legs, I understood it wasn’t a permanent fix.Even when I looked my best – back to a size 10 after losing baby weight, for example – I’d always check the back view in the mirror when wearing a dress, with an anxious feeling, knowing that one day I’d see the veins pop back again. Sure enough they did and, once again, my right leg was the problem.Slowly they returned, getting bigger and more unsightly, until in my late 50s they were again stopping me living life to the full.It wasn’t just the ugly appearance either. They throbbed and itched around my ankle at night and had started to keep me awake, so much so that I took to sleeping with an ice pack on my ankle to reduce the discomfort.When it came to NHS care, things had changed since my last operation. Access to the procedure is now reserved for those with an urgent medical need (such as bleeding or ulcers) which ruled me out. But I wasn’t prepared to put up with them. Claire now 'loves' looking over her shoulder to see the smooth back of her leg in the mirror Claire cannot wait for her summer holiday and has already been shopping for clothes following the procedureSo, after reading that TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson had undergone a third varicose vein removal surgery, I decided to look into options for myself and, earlier this year, went for my first private consultation with Mr Matthew Button at the Nuffield Hospital in Haywards Heath.During our chat I was delighted to learn that surgical technology has moved on and that nowadays there are quick, non-invasive ways to deal with unsightly blue veins that no longer involves a full-on operation nor a fortnight of painful, immobile recovery.The first thing Mr Button made me do was stand on a mini stepladder so that he could closely examine my legs. After a cold, hard winter they were white and flaky (even though I moisturise daily) and the veins were bulging unpleasantly. Once again I felt horribly self-conscious, even in front of a man who sees and treats legs like mine every day.The next part of my treatment was a revelation – a scan to pinpoint exactly where the problem veins were.Remarkably, this had never been done before: in the old days the surgeons would simply mark up bits of my leg with a pen. Now I would have a precise map of my wriggly blue streaks.Vascular scientist Darren Cheal covered my legs in jelly – I was reminded of baby scans, despite the fact my two are now 26 and 22 – and started slowly moving a probe up and down my legs, showing me the defective valves in my veins.It was oddly satisfying to see. Mr Cheal was able to directly trace the path of one varicose vein to the source of the problem – a faulty valve at the top of my right thigh.Instead of draining blood out of my leg, the vein was not closing properly and blood was ‘falling’ back down again, causing the surface veins to bulge. Vascular scientist Darren Cheal with the ultra sound machine which is used for a venous duplex scanHe collected images and measurements detailing the faulty pathways and the next day I had a follow-up call with Mr Button, who recommended treating me with a combination of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and something called ‘foaming’ (or ‘foam sclerotherapy’.)After learning that the procedure would be painless and performed under a local anaesthetic, I booked in and was treated a few weeks later.The anaesthetic was administered to numb my right leg and then a catheter was inserted into the vein through which thermal energy was delivered (the RFA part of the treatment) to collapse and seal it from the inside.Bizarrely, the weirdest part was when my vein was drained of blood at the start, literally via gravity with the treatment couch tilted all the way back so my head was near to the floor and my leg in the air.The ‘foam’ part of the treatment is reserved for the smaller, less lumpy veins. A chemical foam is injected into them, which displaces the blood and irritates the tissue, causing it to spasm, collapse and seal shut too.It may sound gruesome but it was completely painless and all over in 90 minutes.What a difference to my previous two vein surgeries. This time I felt so relaxed as I chatted to the surgical team throughout the procedure. Mr Button worked with his incredibly efficient sidekick Ros, and a nurse was on hand to help with anything else.The incisions were then treated with small steri strips, and a dressing and compression stocking placed from the groin to the foot. The stocking was hideously thick and uncomfortable, but at least I could walk.In fact, I was made to walk by the nurse who told me how important it is to get the blood moving around again as quickly as possible to prevent it from pooling and to lower the risk of serious clots.I thought I was being clever, arranging to have the operation in mid-May, well before the heat of the summer, having remembered how awful it had been wearing those bandages all day and night after that first op.Unfortunately, an early heatwave hit and I ended up in my surgical stocking in 35C (95F) conditions!My daughter had to drive me home but I was given the all-clear to drive myself 24 hours later. We went for a walk after dinner and I was up working from home at 7am the next day.Afterwards, my veins were a little hard and lumpy but I was told that was normal and within three weeks they had settled right down. Today, two months on, to my huge delight, the area that had bulging veins is now completely smooth and flat.I was lucky enough to get the entire cost covered by private healthcare, otherwise it would have set me back £3,700, including the consultation and scan. I look down at my legs and love what I see and, hopefully, I won’t need any further operations.The beauty of the scanning is that it detected which veins were going to be troublesome and dealt with them before they could bulge and become unsightly.Finally, I can enjoy the feeling of having bare legs in the sun and, better still, my legs look 20 years younger.I can’t stop running my hands over my calves to marvel at the smoothness. Now I love looking over my shoulder in the mirror at the back of my leg. No longer having a horrible vein protruding from behind my knee is a complete game-changer.I can’t wait for my summer holiday and have already been shopping for clothes – and not sarongs and linen trousers this time. The shorts are on for the first time in quite a few years and, believe me, they’re not coming off until at least September.