About peripal - Built by a Woman Who Gets It

Hi, I'm Stephanie

Mom of 3 · UX Designer · Brooklyn, NY

Why I built peripal

A few years ago, my family and I moved to New York. New city, new adventure, three kids in tow, life was good. Busy and chaotic, but good.

And then, almost overnight, I stopped sleeping.

Not the “I had a bad night” kind. The “I haven't slept properly in weeks and I feel like a zombie walking through my own life” kind. I was exhausted but wired. Foggy but anxious. I'd forget words mid-sentence, snap at my kids over nothing, and then cry in the bathroom wondering what was wrong with me.

One evening I got so irrationally angry that I threw a carrot at the wall. Not tossed, threw. It exploded into a hundred pieces. And here's the thing: I'm a yoga person. I'm the laid-back one. I'm the “let's all take a deep breath” mom. And there I was, standing in my kitchen, staring at carrot shrapnel on the wall, thinking: who am I right now?

I went to doctors. I Googled at 3am. I tried melatonin, magnesium, meditation, cutting caffeine, adding caffeine back. Nothing worked , because nobody told me the real answer:

I was in perimenopause. At 45. And I had no idea.

The long road to feeling better

Once I had a name for it, I thought the hard part was over. It wasn't. Finding reliable information was a maze. Every article contradicted the last. My doctor was helpful but stretched thin. Friends were going through similar things but none of us were connecting the dots.

It took me a long time, months of reading, tracking, experimenting, advocating for myself, to finally understand what was happening in my body and start feeling like myself again.

And the whole time I kept thinking: why is this so hard? Why isn't there one place that just... Tells you what you need to know? Without the medical jargon, without the fear-mongering, without making you feel like you're falling apart?

So I built that place 💛

I'm a UX designer by trade, I spend my days making complicated things feel simple and human. peripal is me applying that same thinking to something that desperately needs it.

This app is everything I wish I had when I was lying awake at 3am wondering if I was losing my mind. It's the friend who says “you're not crazy, here's what's happening.” It's the guide I had to piece together from 50 different sources. It's the partner education I wish someone had handed my husband.

I built peripal because women deserve better support during midlife. Not just medical care (though that too), but information, validation, community, and tools that actually help you understand and manage what's going on.

If you're here because you're going through it too, welcome. You're not alone, you're not imagining it, and it does get better. I promise.

Stephanie 🌸
Brooklyn, NY

P.S.: peripal is a work in progress, close to my heart, and I'm okay with that. I built this alone, in my spare time, because I needed it to exist. This is the first public beta ... things will change, improve, and grow. Thank you for being here early.