Excellent question! For many years women may have been having pelvic or ovarian vein embolization without first having investigation of possible iliac vein compression syndrome (May Thurner is the most common form of this). If the ovarian or pelvic vein varicosities have developed over time as collateral drainage of the lower extremities, patients will often develop symptoms of PCS related to pelvic "varicose veins," similar to aching, one may experience in the legs due to leg varicose veins. So, now back to the embolization. If you have an iliac vein compression on one or both sides and your pelvic veins were important collateral drainage, and they closed them off with coils etc, then it would make perfect sense for your symptoms to worsen after your embolization. My next step would be IVUS (intravascular ultrasound) examination to definitively establish whether you have significant iliac vein compression, and if so, treat with IVUS directed stent treatment. I hope this helps and I wish you the best.

Published on Jul 11, 2012