The Peri Files
Perimenopause, documented.
The Peri Files is where midlife, hormones, body changes, brain fog, rage, exhaustion, self-advocacy, and receipts all go into the same folder.
Why I Created The Peri Files
Perimenopause did not arrive gently for me.
It did not show up as one cute hot flash and a wistful essay about aging gracefully. It showed up tangled in sleep problems, focus issues, body changes, anxiety, irritability, exhaustion, pelvic floor issues, post-bariatric body shifts, and the strange, awful feeling of not always recognizing myself in my own life.
I have spent years being the person who researches, tracks, solves, documents, manages, notices, and keeps going. I am a blogger, author, data analyst, homesteader, mother, grandmother, wife, student, EMR, and chronic “figure it out” person.
That question is where The Peri Files began.
What The Peri Files Is
The Peri Files is a candid, slightly feral, evidence-based space for people trying to make sense of perimenopause without being dismissed, minimized, or told to “just reduce stress” as if stress is a scented candle we forgot to light.
It is part blog, part symptom tracker, part resource hub, part personal record, and part middle finger to the idea that women should quietly endure massive body changes without documentation, language, or support.
Personal Experience
Honest writing about hormones, mood, identity, body changes, and what it feels like to move through midlife in real life.
Symptom Tracking
Tools and prompts for noticing patterns before you are trying to remember six months of symptoms in a seven-minute appointment.
Self-Advocacy
Language, questions, and documentation to help you walk into appointments with notes instead of apologies.
Receipts
Because “I don’t feel like myself” should be enough, but sometimes we need the file anyway.
What We’re Filing
Perimenopause is rarely one clean symptom. It is usually a messy stack of clues. Here are some of the things The Peri Files will help document and discuss:
- Sleep disruptions
- Hot flashes and night sweats
- Mood shifts, anxiety, and rage
- Brain fog, focus problems, and memory slips
- Body composition and metabolism changes
- Pelvic floor symptoms
- Labs, appointments, medications, and supplements
- The moments when you know something is off
What You’ll Find Here
The Peri Files will include personal essays, practical resources, tracking tools, printable pages, digital case-file style records, and honest writing about what it feels like to move through midlife when your body starts sending emergency alerts and everyone still expects you to answer emails, feed animals, remember appointments, make dinner, and be emotionally regulated.
Some posts will be deeply personal. Some will be practical. Some will be funny because honestly, if we cannot laugh at the absurdity of sweating through a shirt while forgetting why we walked into a room, what are we even doing?
The goal is not to diagnose anyone. The goal is to help more of us walk into appointments, conversations, and our own lives with better notes, clearer patterns, and more confidence in what we know about our own bodies.
This Is Not Medical Advice
I am not a doctor, and The Peri Files is not a substitute for medical care. This is personal experience, research, documentation, and community-centered storytelling.
But I do believe this: women deserve better language for what is happening to them. We deserve to be believed. We deserve to understand our options. And we deserve to stop treating our own bodies like unsolved mysteries we are somehow not qualified to investigate.
Start Your Own File
Whether you are just starting to wonder what is going on, deep in the “what fresh hell is this?” stage, or trying to advocate for yourself after years of being dismissed, you are welcome here.
Bring the symptoms. Bring the questions. Bring the receipts.
The case is open.