Relax Mobile Massage
The short answer
Postpone a massage if you have a fever, an infection, an acute injury, or anything contagious. Get medical advice first if you are pregnant, have a clotting disorder or take blood thinners, have osteoporosis, are undergoing cancer treatment, or have uncontrolled high blood pressure. Massage is otherwise low-risk, with serious side effects rare.
On this page
Postpone, no discussion needed
A fever. Whatever your body is doing, it is doing it for a reason, and an hour of vigorous circulation is not a help. Move the booking; it costs nothing.
Anything contagious. A stomach bug, flu, conjunctivitis, an active skin infection. The therapist visits several homes a day and this matters more in outcall work than in a shop.
An acute injury. A fresh sprain, a strain from yesterday, anything swollen, hot or bruised. The first few days belong to rest, not pressure.
Heavy drinking. Alcohol and a long massage produce nausea and a worse hangover, and every therapist in this trade has a story about it.
Ask a doctor first
Pregnancy. Massage during pregnancy is common and can be done safely, but it needs a therapist trained for it and positioning that does not put pressure on the abdomen. Thai massage with its assisted stretching is generally not the right choice.
Blood thinners or a clotting disorder. Pressure that is unremarkable for most people can produce significant bruising, and this is one of the specific situations worth raising with a clinician.
Osteoporosis or reduced bone density. NCCIH lists bone fracture among the rare serious side effects reported, and the assisted stretching in Thai massage is the part to be careful about.
Cancer treatment. Massage is used supportively in oncology settings and can be appropriate, but it should be cleared with the treating team rather than assumed. The same applies to recent surgery and to uncontrolled high blood pressure.
The rare serious risks, stated plainly
NCCIH's position is that the risk of harmful effects from massage therapy appears to be low. That is the headline and it is the accurate one.
It also notes rare reports of serious side effects including a blood clot, nerve injury and bone fracture. Rare is doing real work in that sentence, but the items on the list are the reason the clotting and bone-density cautions above exist.
The practical version is that the risk concentrates in people who already have a specific vulnerability, and that telling the therapist about it is what keeps it near zero.
The guidance that matters most is also the simplest: do not use massage to postpone seeing a health care provider about a medical problem.
Areas to avoid rather than whole treatments
Varicose veins, which should be worked around rather than over. Most people with them know already and a therapist will ask.
Recent scars, fresh tattoos, burns, sunburn and broken skin. All of these are local exclusions and none of them cancel a session.
Any area that hurts sharply rather than dully. Sharp is a stop signal every time, and it does not need to be justified.
Say all of it at the start rather than hoping she notices. Thirty seconds at the beginning prevents the entire category of problem.
Things people worry about that are fine
Being unfit, overweight, very tall, very old, inflexible, ticklish or hairy. None of it registers with anybody who does this for a living.
Having had a bad experience elsewhere. Say what went wrong and it will be worked around; a therapist would far rather know.
Period pain, which massage is frequently helpful for, though it is worth mentioning so abdominal work is skipped.
Being nervous about the whole thing. A first massage is a completely ordinary reason to book sixty minutes of oil rather than ninety of anything else.
What to tell us, and when
At the booking, not at the door. Medical conditions, medications, pregnancy and recent surgery all change who we send and what she does, and none of that can be arranged on a landing.
There is no version of this where disclosing something gets you refused unnecessarily. In almost every case the treatment simply adapts, and the adaptation is invisible.
If a therapist declines a booking on medical grounds, that is the system working. It is a small number of cases and it is not a judgement.
And if you are genuinely unsure whether something on this page applies to you, the answer is a two-minute conversation with a doctor rather than a guess in either direction.
Nothing on this page is medical advice and it is not intended to substitute for any. It is the list of things a therapist needs to know before she starts, written down so the conversation at the booking stage is a short one.
One last practical note: moving a booking for any of the reasons above is free and always will be. An operator who charges somebody for cancelling because they woke up with a fever has designed the policy badly.
Source
The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health reports that the risk of harmful effects from massage therapy appears to be low, with rare reports of serious side effects such as a blood clot, nerve injury or bone fracture, and advises discussing concerns with a health care provider.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIHLink checked 2026-08-24
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