Post-surgical recovery

Immediately after surgery, when swelling is at its most active, MLD is often most useful closer together, sometimes multiple sessions in the first week or two, tapering off as swelling reduces and the body's own drainage recovers. As covered in MLD after surgery, this timeline is set by your surgical team's guidance first, with the treatment schedule built around where you are in recovery rather than a fixed number of sessions applied to everyone.

Ongoing fluid retention or general wellbeing

For fluid retention that isn't linked to surgery, covered in MLD for swelling, bloating and fluid retention, frequency tends to be more flexible. Some people find a single session provides noticeable relief that lasts for days or weeks, and choose to have MLD occasionally when they notice symptoms building up, around travel, hormonal changes, or a particularly sedentary period, for example. Others with a more persistent pattern find a regular rhythm, such as monthly, keeps symptoms more consistently under control than treating it reactively each time.

What determines the right frequency for you

A few things influence this: why you're having MLD in the first place, how your body responds to a session, and how quickly symptoms tend to return afterwards. This is genuinely something to work out with Leah directly rather than from a general guide, since two people with what looks like a similar concern can have quite different underlying patterns.

The short version

Post-surgical MLD tends to be more frequent early on and taper off as recovery progresses. General fluid retention MLD is more flexible, from occasional sessions around specific triggers to a regular monthly rhythm for more persistent patterns. Either way, frequency is something to establish and adjust at consultation rather than fix in advance.