A fitting room, designed to be pretty and welcoming, for women at the Women’s Health Boutique in Tyler is pictured.

Located in Tyler is a business made by women for women called the Women’s Health Boutique. When women come into this boutique, the goal is for them to leave feeling confident and happy.

“Making each woman feel like she looks good is key,” Vicki D. Jones, owner and founder of Women’s Health Boutique, said. “If it doesn’t make you feel better about you, then I have not succeeded in what my goal was.”

The Women’s Health Boutique in Tyler, located at 1130 Doctors Drive, officially opened the first week of March 2020. There were plans for a grand opening this month, with hopes of COVID-19 not preventing it.

While the grand opening festivities were canceled, many still came to visit, Jones said.

She added that two people who specialize in compression were at the boutique on Thursday. She said that it was truly a blessing that they were there because “the people that came today needed to see these two specialists.”

The Women’s Health Boutique offers services for multiple areas including breast pumps/maternity, post-breast surgery, wigs and compression (a common treatment for lymphedema, which is swelling in an arm or leg caused by a lymphatic system blockage).

In the beginning, the main focus of the boutique was breast prosthesis fittings for women who have had a mastectomy, reconstruction or lumpectomy, Jones said.

But as time went on, the boutique began offering more. As they began doing compressions, they attracted male customers in need of this service.

Today, when it comes to compression, about 50% of those the boutique staff help are men, Jones said.

“We’re one of the few places that do complex compressions, so all of the wound doctors and all of the doctors that deal with lymphedema send their men customers to us,” she said. “They say, ‘We know the name is Women’s Health Boutique, but you’re gonna love them.’”

While they have vastly expanded their services, a large part of the Women’s Health Boutique will always be their work in breast prosthesis fittings for women, Jones said.

The journey of creating a women’s health boutique began when her mother died of cancer, Jones said.

After her death, Jones and her sister realized that there were many products out there that their mother could have used but they didn’t know about, she said.

“My goal was to find the products that women needed and make them available,” Jones said. “Not only make it available to them but educate them that their insurance would pay for them because insurance, Medicaid and Medicare have always paid for these products, just the women didn’t know it.”

Jones went on to design her own line of prostheses around 20 years ago. At that time, there were no breast prostheses that would mold and move as they should and she sought to fix that, she said.

She also recalled a monumental moment when her friend and first employee told her about her experience getting fitted for a breast prosthesis. The woman spoke about being led through a room full of beautiful things she could no longer wear into a bland office in the back where she was fitted. Jones said it was heart-wrenching.

At this point, Jones said she knew that during her life she needed to make a boutique where women could feel welcomed and loved.

Women’s Health Boutique now has five locations, including Longview, Tyler, Dallas, Plano and Oak Cliff.

“That’s one of the things that I love to do,” she said. “I love to figure out what women need that’s not available and then I do everything I can to find it and make it available.”

Jones added she could tell stories of countless items the boutique sells that were developed by women in need of an unavailable product.

She said she couldn’t be prouder that at the Women’s Health Boutique, women are able to walk into a welcoming atmosphere that makes them feel good and like a part of the family.

“It’s a privilege to be here and help these women, and even men, as they walk through this door,” Jones said.

To learn more about Women’s Health Boutique, visit its website mywhb.com.