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Build Notes: The Menopausey Guide

by Becca | Oct 17, 2026

About The Guide

The Menopausey Guide started off as a spreadsheet, then became a clunky WordPress page about two years ago and since has evolved into a sophisticated MVP, supported by an administrative back-end and scheduled AI-assisted automation.

It currently features 1130 resources across 25 categories as of its last update, as well as a peri/menopause market landscape view. Each category has explainer text to help people know what to look for and better be able to evaluate the efficacy of any of the products and services mentioned here. 

Tech Stack (list generated by Claude Code)

  • Framework: Next.js 16 (App Router) with React 19 and TypeScript. It was first built in v0 and is now developed directly in code.
  • Hosting: Vercel. Pages refresh every 5 minutes, and two scheduled jobs run each week: one checks for broken links and one fills in missing search data for new resources.
  • Database: Neon serverless Postgres, with the pgvector extension for meaning-based search.
  • Search: Voyage AI (voyage-3) turns resources into embeddings. When a question is written in everyday language, the search matches it by meaning, not just keywords.
  • AI: Anthropic Claude through the Vercel AI SDK and the Anthropic SDK. Haiku 4.5 handles most tasks, including the "Char" chat assistant, and Sonnet 4.6 handles the heavier analysis.
  • UI: Tailwind CSS v4, shadcn/ui (built on Radix), Lucide icons and Geist fonts. Charts on the Market Intelligence page use Recharts, and TanStack Virtual keeps the 1,100+ resource list fast.
  • Abuse protection: rate limiting with Upstash Redis, which falls back to an in-memory limiter if Redis isn't available.
  • Analytics: Vercel Analytics, with Google Consent Mode v2 for privacy-respecting consent.
  • Testing: Vitest
Menopausey Guide homepage with the headline “It’s not just you.” A “Living Experiment” card explains that the directory is updated at least weekly, that Menopausey has no relationship with listed companies, and that it is not medical advice. An “Explore the directory” button sits beside a note reading “1130 resources curated, updated October 11, 2026.” Below that are a search bar, card and list view toggles, and filter chips for collections, 25 categories, and countries. The directory lists the categories with resource counts, from Supplements, Lifestyle, Fitness, Nutrition (122) and Apps & Digital Tools (113) down to Emerging & Niche Solutions (9). The page ends with a “Support our work” section and a footer with a disclaimer, Connect and Legal links, and an “Ask Char” button.
Chat panel for Char, the Menopausey Guide assistant. Char introduces itself as answering questions about perimenopause and menopause and helping find resources in the Guide. It notes that it doesn’t give medical advice and links to finding a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner. Five suggested prompts follow: first signs of perimenopause, sleep resources, perimenopause vs. menopause, mental health resources, and whether HRT is safe. Below them are a text input with a microphone button and a disclaimer that Char is informational only, not a medical professional, and may make mistakes.

While filters and search options are extensive, one of the most important features, in my opinion, is the ability to see which products have associated watch dog records.

This is a comprehensive and always evolving scan of all of the types of things being sold to "improve" the peri/menopause experience. And while curated, over time, I decided to make this more of an educational resource than a recommended solutions resource.

That means some of these items are sketchy, some are borderline predatory, and many are not supported by science. 

A “Watchdog Record” tooltip open over a period and fertility tracking app card. It cites the FTC press release “FTC Finalizes Order with Flo Health, a Fertility-Tracking App that Shared Sensitive Health Data with Facebook, Google, and Others,” with a link to ftc.gov. A note says the record comes from public records and that Menopausey presents it for reference without evaluating safety or making recommendations. Below the tooltip, the card shows its yellow Watchdog Record badge, a truncated description, tags for period and fertility tracking, irregular periods, and mood swings, plus App Store and Google Play buttons and a save heart.
The Menopausey Guide’s “Supplements, Lifestyle, Fitness, Nutrition” category, expanded to show 8 resources. An orange-bordered callout explains that US supplements don’t need FDA approval before going to market, that the FDA oversees safety and labeling while the FTC regulates marketing claims, and that readers should look for third-party testing (NSF, USP), transparent doses, and evidence for the specific formulation. It names Truth in Advertising (TINA) as a resource, and a collapsed “Things to consider” link sits below. Four product cards follow, each with an image, a truncated description, topic tags, a website button, and a save heart: Bonafide Noctera & Thermella sleep and hot flash combination supplement Equelle, a hormone-free, plant-based supplement MenoMulti from The ‘Pause Life by Dr. Mary Claire Haver OLLY, a supplement brand with menopause products All four carry a yellow “Watchdog Record” warning badge.

One of my other under the radar favorite sections is the Government, Regulation, Policy, Legislation area.

Menopausey Guide directory filtered to “Government, Regulation, Policy, Legislation,” showing 35 results with a Reset button. Two dismissible notes sit above the results. One invites researchers, open-source builders, and historically excluded founders to email hello@menopausey.com for access to the raw data. The other defines the category as legislation, government reports, regulatory guidance, and advocacy organizations focused on government-level menopause policy, with a collapsed “Things to consider” link. Eight resource cards follow, each with a title, truncated description, topic tags, a website button, and a save heart: AB-432, California menopause bill text APPG Menopause Inquiry concluding report on inequity in UK menopause care Australian Parliament Senate report chapter on policy directions for menopause (marked New) Black Women’s Health Imperative “Power in the Pause” policy and legislation hub Connecticut HB-05389, a provider toolkit for diagnosis and treatment of menopause (marked New) Delaware SB 319, coverage for menopause diagnosis and treatment (marked New) Florida SB 190 (2026), a menopause-related bill Washington Governor Ferguson’s executive order supporting workers experiencing perimenopause and menopause

As I collected more and more resources, I realized a market view might be of use to fellow founders and investors, so I built this to track category counts and density, and where money is going.

Full-length screenshot of the Menopausey Guide’s Menopause Market Landscape page, shown too small to read in detail. Summary stats at the top include 1,141 resources across 25 market segments. Below them are a treemap of segment sizes, a grid of segment density cards with counts, and a cloud of focus-area tags. A long investment activity feed follows, listing funding rounds, grants, and acquisitions with summaries and tags, and a compliance section sits at the bottom.

All of this is supported by an administrative back end system I run locally that helps with the curation process. When my local server is running, scans occur twice a week on a schedule. Otherwise, I trigger them on demand.

The Resource Gap Finder surfaces new items via exa.ai (56 queries across 25 categories), runs a duplicate check, and presents them in the UI for me to review, approve, and submit to the database.

Tech Stack (list generated by Claude Code)

  • Runtime: Bun, which runs the server, installs packages, runs tests and bundles the code.
  • Backend: Hono, a lightweight TypeScript web framework, serving a small API.
  • Frontend: React 19 with Vite and Tailwind CSS v4, plus TanStack Query for data fetching and Lucide icons.
  • Database: SQLite through Drizzle ORM, using Bun's built-in SQLite driver. It's a single file on disk, which is all an internal tool needs.
  • Web search: the Exa search API finds candidate resources across 25 categories, about 56 searches per run.
  • AI: Anthropic's Claude.
    • Claude Sonnet reviews every search result in a single batch call, deciding what's a real resource and which category it belongs in.
    • Claude Haiku writes summaries and tags for approved resources.
  • Duplicate detection: custom TypeScript checks each find against the 1,100+ resources already on menopausey.ai, so mostly new finds reach me.
  • Scheduling: node-cron runs the scans automatically twice a week.
  • Notifications: Nodemailer emails me when new resources are waiting for review.
  • Hosting: Fly.io, in a Docker container that shuts down when idle, with a persistent volume for the database. (I only use this when I travel and usually just run the scanner locally.)
  • Live site connection: it reads from the menopausey.ai Postgres database on Neon to check for duplicates. Approved resources go to the live site through its import API.

I first built this using a no-code agent building platform called Dreamer. It worked surprisingly well even though it was in Beta, until the team got acqui-hired by Meta and then shut it down. Fortunately, I was able to export my code files and rebuild the functionality using Claude Code.

It was a sucky, but useful reminder, that any 3rd-party SaaS tool (or model) could evaporate at any time. Recent and related lessons with other tools have reminded me that costs can also go up at any time and without notice. I'd recommend you try to get as much of your workflow and building out of the Big AI products as you can.

Resource Gap Finder on the Scan tab. The last scan, on Oct 4, 2026, completed in about four minutes and found 75 resources. Summary cards show 793 known resources, 0 pending, and 0 approved. A “Categories to scan” list has all 25 categories checked, from AI-Enabled Solutions through Government Policy, and the rest of the list is cut off. A “How it works” section lists six steps: The scanner searches the web twice a week. It compares findings against known resources. It emails the results. You approve or reject each resource. You click “Prepare All” to generate summaries, images, and tags. You submit to menopausey.ai in one click.
Resource Gap Finder on the Pending tab, with 70 resources awaiting review from the Oct 16, 2026 scan. The AI-Enabled Solutions category is expanded and shows two items with links, summaries, and approve or reject buttons: Knowher Wellness, an AI women’s health platform, and Lunalta, a tool that turns perimenopause symptom data into clinical narratives. Buttons approve or reject everything in the category, and a note says 18 more categories follow.
Resource Gap Finder admin page for the menopausey.ai directory, on the Investments tab. The last scan on Oct 16, 2026 found 8 new investments, and 7 are pending review, with Approve All and Reject All buttons. Items are grouped by type, each with a source link, a short AI summary, and approve or reject buttons: Grants (4): the EU-funded MenoBrain brain health project, a University of Southern Denmark mental health initiative, a $3M Department of Defense grant to Ohio State for research on women veterans, and Wellcome Leap funding to Mount Sinai. Acquisition (1): EncorVita Health acquiring an education platform from Eterna. Series D+ (1): Midi Health’s $100M Series D at a valuation above $1B. Series A (1): Womaness’s $8M round led by Amberstone.

Accessibility

I aim for everything I build to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. There's no excuse to build inaccessible solutions in this day and age. Run checks using Lighthouse and work with Claude Code (or your tool of choice) to improve your results.

Lighthouse report for https://www.menopausey.ai/ in dark mode. The four score circles at the top read 99, 100, 100, and 100, and a fifth badge reads 3/3. The Accessibility tab is selected, showing a score of 100 and a note that automated checks catch only a subset of issues and manual testing is still encouraged. Below that, “Additional items to manually check (10)” lists: Interactive controls are keyboard focusable Interactive elements indicate their purpose and state The page has a logical tab order Visual order follows DOM order User focus is not accidentally trapped User focus is directed to new content HTML5 landmark elements are used Offscreen content is hidden from assistive technology Custom controls have associated labels Custom controls have ARIA roles

Other Things I Learned and Observed

Paying close attention to the market via this application was incredibly useful as a founder also building in this space (flagship prototype build notes coming soon). It also eventually disheartened me and served as the evidence that I needed to stop trying to commercialize Menopausey.

For a long time, I've watched new vibe-coded apps hit the app stores week over week and they all tout the same features. Many lack transparency. Perimenopausal humans still aren't much better off. I went from being an early pioneer and one of the first building in this space to a copy-cat product. That stung.

While I haven't seen anything as comprehensive as the Menopausey Guide, anyone can build it now, which is both awesome and not awesome. 😉 

On Tools

I started building this guide in v0 and eventually shifted my entire workflow into Claude Code in Visual Studio Code. There came a time where trying to troubleshoot in v0 felt super inefficient and I was ready to level up my building game. While I continued to be a v0 champion for a while, after a couple of rounds of billing hiccups, some pretty bad AI-powered support, and a bill increase without notice from $20/month to $30/month, I canceled my subscription. (They did resolve my billing issues.)

Extensibility

I built a strong foundation that will serve me well for any sort of directory solution in the future.