If you look through your medical supplies catalogue, you’ll find special underwear designed for ostomates. Since my insurance covered them, I tried a few pairs. To their credit, they have a decent design with a double front panel so that there’s a special place for your pouch. They’re fairly comfortable and supportive. But honestly, the last thing I need right now in terms of my body image is to wear huge white cotton old lady underwear. No offense to anybody who likes them, but for me they were comfortably depressing.
After being sick for years and feeling absolutely unsexy – running to the bathroom, leaking, and gurgling are not exactly helpful in this category – I really wanted to find ways to feel sexy despite my new ostomy. I wanted my new healthy life to be different from my sick life in this respect.
To that end, I have found sexy underwear. I know that my idea of sexy is not necessarily universal – my point is that I found underwear that I feel sexy in, and anybody who wants that need only look. In my case, I found lots of lacy translucent high-wasted underwear at Victoria’s Secret that totally cover my pouch and yet are really pretty and alluring. They’re kind of sexy in an old-fashioned 1950s kind of way, but I like that.
Having an ostomy is not the end of sexy. For me, it feels more like a return to sexy, since during my sick years I was anything but. I suppose it’s all in relation to where you’ve been, but I hope other ostomates will be honest with themselves about what they need and want and then have the courage to go out and find it. If you can’t find it, be creative and make your own way. See the link on my page to My Heart Ties for an inspiring story of an ostomate who made her own way, and to purchase the sexy pouch covers she created.
