WRITING FOR PEOPLE TRACKING THEIR OWN HEALTH
Your body doesn't wait for your next appointment.
Field Notes is where we explain what the numbers in Plena mean, what the research actually says, and where it stops. Written plainly, cited properly, and never selling you a supplement.
THIS WEEK
Your Hormones Across 24 Hours
You run on two hormonal clocks and only one of them gets discussed. What the 24-hour clock actually controls is not what most people assume — and on estrogen and progesterone, two careful studies flatly disagree.
Everything here is written to be read alongside your own data. Nothing on this site is medical advice, and nothing on it is for sale.UPDATED 7 AUG 2026
Start here
ALL 14 PIECES →HORMONES
Perimenopause 101: What Is Actually Happening
Perimenopause is not the end of something — it is a transition with its own biology, its own timeline, and a lot more room to act than most women are told.READ →
SLEEPMagnesium and Sleep: Which Form, How Much, and Why It Might Not Work
Magnesium is the most recommended supplement in perimenopause and the most poorly explained. The form matters, the dose matters, and it does not fix every kind of bad night.READ →
MOVEMENTStrength Training Past 40: The Case and the Plan
If you do one thing for the next thirty years of your health, make it this. Two sessions a week, six movements, and a willingness to lift heavier than feels polite.READ →
WHAT THE APP DOES WITH THIS
Reading is one half. Your own record is the other.
Plena tracks symptoms, sleep, food, supplements, labs and cycle in one place, and shows you the patterns across them. Every article here links to the part of the app it's about, so you can go and look at your own version of it.
ONE RECORDSymptoms, sleep, food, supplements, labs and cycle live together, so a pattern across two of them is visible.
NO GUESSINGWhere your data is too variable to support a prediction, Plena counts and reports instead of inventing a date.
PEPTIDE AWAREIf you are on a protocol — HRT, GLP-1, peptides — it logs alongside everything else. If you are not, you never see it.
PORTABLENinety days of your record exports to one page you can hand to a clinician.
Recently
Creatine Across Your Cycle — and the Bigger Doses for Your BrainNow → supplement schedule and adherenceGLP-1 Medications 101: An Honest BriefingNow → protocol logging and dosesUnderstanding Your Cycle in PerimenopauseLook Back → cycle length and observed rangeAshwagandha and Stress: What It Does and Who Should Avoid ItFeel → mood and stress over timeVitamin D and Bone Health After 40Now → supplement schedule and adherenceOmega-3: Heart, Mood, and What the Label Isn't Telling YouNow → supplement schedule and adherence