Women Veterans deserve the best prosthetic and sensory aids designed to fit their lifestyle and body based on their unique health care needs.
VA offers comprehensive and advanced prosthetic devices, sensory aids and rehabilitation services. We know that size and appearance matter. We’re further enhancing options so you can choose items that meet your personal style and body type.
“Prosthetic” means any device that replaces loss of a body part or function.
Our gender specific options:
- Maternity items: VA supports soon-to-be mothers with a wide range of essentials like nursing bras, breast pumps and even support belts. Your Maternity Care Coordinator can help you get the items you need.
- Post-mastectomy items: Navigate the emotional and physical challenges of breast cancer recovery with our offerings, including breast prosthesis, bathing suits, surgical implants and more.
- Wigs: Hair loss can be an incredibly stressful experience for women. If you have alopecia or you have recently undergone chemotherapy, you may be eligible to receive wigs through VA health care. Your VA health care team can help you decide whether a wig could be beneficial, especially with your mental health.
- Pelvic floor physical therapy (PT) equipment and devices: Find relief from menopause or other health conditions with items such as vaginal dilators or other pelvic floor PT equipment and devices. Don’t be shy about asking your VA health care team for help.
- Long-acting reversible contraceptives: Access a variety of birth control options, including contraceptive implants or intrauterine devices (or IUDs).
Outside of these gender-specific examples, VA provides many options for prosthetic and sensory aids, ranging anywhere from mobility aids, hearing aids, glasses, communication or assistive devices, custom limbs, diabetic shoes and orthotic inserts, recreational and rehab equipment, adaptive equipment and much more.
You may also be eligible for rehabilitation services and treatments, including sports programs, creative arts and physical therapy through VA’s Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services.
Accessing Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service
To be eligible, you must be enrolled in VA health care and have a medical need or referral from a provider for a prosthetic service or device. Additional eligibility criteria may apply for certain programs.
The best place to start is with your VA health care team or primary care provider. Once they determine the items or devices that can support your treatment plan, they will connect you to VA Prosthetic and Sensory Aid Service. You can also contact the Women Veterans Program Manager at your nearest VA medical center to discuss your eligibility and options and they can help coordinate your care. To learn more about what VA can offer, visit the VA Office of Women’s Health Prosthetics page or call 1-855-VA-WOMEN to speak with a real person and get connected to care. You can also visit the VA Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service.
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While not usually thought about, but none the less important, women’s shoe lifts for leg length discrepancy brought on by accident, injury, etc. are caught in a trap. Not only limited to 2 pair of shoes per year (or in my case, only one leg is affected), it has taken months to years waiting for the V.A. to make them, at least in the Baltimore, MD area. My last experience took over 2 years to get shoes. As of 7/1/24, I’m still waiting to get word on when the shoes I dropped off about 4 mos. ago will be ready. It has been 7 years since I last dropped off shoes for lifts because I had no way of getting them to the prosthetics dept. My current shoes are worn out and, as a woman, I wear a number of different shoes to go with a variety of outfits. Psychologically, it is very depressing. Physiologically, I am in pain constantly due to scoliosis that occurred after walking for over two years without a lift to equalize my leg length. Now the last of my shoes have fallen apart, and to out in public I have to wear shoes not adapted to the discrepancy. The lifts are a must, not a frivolous want. With multiple medical issues, chronic pain and deformity life is hard enough. The only way to keep my leg muscles working is to use them, which I cannot do without the 1 1/4″ shoe lifts.
My query is: why can’t we get more than 2 pairs per year and why can’t they be outsourced when the backlog is so lengthy? Perhaps this could be incorporated into a clothing allowance since it typically costs about $50 per 1/4″ for a platform lift? I need a resolution to this ongoing problem and don’t know how to fix it.