One thing that not a lot of people consider is that it can be a little more difficult to dress trendy and fashionable with the addition of a stoma and ostomy pouch. For those of you who are not aware or are living under a rock, a stoma is the term used to describe a whole in someone’s body where their waste, like urine and feces, comes out into a bag called an ostomy pouch. I know that this sounds pretty gross, but it is a real thing that a lot of people have to deal with and you should just be grateful that you aren’t one of them. Well today I am excited to share with you some tips and tricks for dressing while wearing an ostomy pouch.

Some people assume that they will have to throw out their entire wardrobe after they get an ostomy because nothing will be able to fit the same anymore. If you are thinking in that train of thought, then I’m going to have to ask you to drop everything that you’re doing and listen to me. You don’t need to throw away all your clothes – in fact, most of them should be fine and you will eventually be able to wear them one way or another. So without further ado, here are my tips and tricks for dressing with a stoma.

Dressing with an ostomy is something that everyone who gets a stoma needs to learn eventually. It is a bit of a slower process and may take some time to get used to, but I promise it will all be worth it in the end. The first tip I have for you is to look for some compression shorts that might work for you to wear underneath your clothes. Whether you are a guy or a girl reading this, compression shorts will make your life a lot easier! You can wear these things to hold the ostomy pouch tighter against your body, which makes it less noticeable and more comfortable because it is form fitting. Wearing clothes over this can make it so that sometimes your ostomy pouch is completely unnoticeable. This is a really good life hack if you are going out with a group of friends or coworkers and want your ostomy pouch to be completely hidden. Wearing a dress or a nice pair of pants over your compression shorts is a great combo, and I promise you that nonone will ever know that you have a whole in your abdomen. 

Another tip I have for you is to wear high-waisted pants. Now high-waisted pants are more traditionally worn by girls, but guys this one’s for you two. We are gender neutral in 2021 after all! So the nice thing about high-waisted shorts is that, as you can probably guess, it does a better job of concealing your ostomy pouch on occasions when you would not like it to be very noticeable. Jeans are great because they are more textured and usually pretty thick, which means they do a great job of hiding everything down there. Another tip I have is to just wear extremely baggy clothing all the time, because that way people won’t even be able to identify where your body starts, let alone some dumb bag connected to your intestines.