To Speak Plainly,

Our POV

My Soft Pants Hall of Fame
From Zoom to the couch: soft pants edition By Heather MacNeil My career has been fairly linear, as careers go: job, step up, grad school, next job, step up, etc. I’m grateful for that! What am I even more grateful for? The also linear - but this time on the decline - fashion requirements of each of my subsequent jobs. I started my career at a law firm, and my mom took me to the Theory Outlet to buy a few “suiting separates.” Loathed that era. Then I went to... Read more...
Go to the Backstreet Boys concert.
A Vegas girls’ trip, a wooden door, and two hours of feeling 12 again. By Rachel Moore   I’m about two months late to the Backstreet Boys conversation. Which feels about right given the pace of life these days. But I’ve been thinking about this since August, and so here it goes! My sister and I went to Vegas to see the Backstreet Boys at the Sphere. It was our first girls’ trip since losing our mom nearly five years ago. The whole point was to get away, spend time... Read more...
I’m Biologically 28.1 But My Ovaries Disagree
The deeply inconvenient medical proof that I might actually be middle-aged. We have officially entered the era of knowing absolutely everything about our bodies, whether we want to or not. Everything is now tracked, measured, monitored, and analyzed. Our sleep, steps, heart rates, glucose, recovery scores, and readiness for whatever we are supposed to be ready for. I would estimate that I participate in less than 15% of this overzealous obsession with our health, which is actually shocking given how anxious I am. I mean, I don't even wear a... Read more...
F*ck, Marry, Kill
Fuck: Chelsea Handlers's dating service.  We already know Chelsea is a must-follow on IG; now she is a matchmaker. Currently matching ladies seeking ladies -- get on it! Marry: Lena Dunham. She's bringing Girls back!  Say no more.  And if you like audio books, listening to her narrate Famesick was heaven. When Plainspeak grows up and has board meetings, we’re asking her to read the minutes. Kill: The estrogen patch shortage. We have strong feelings about it, if only we had the word retrieval to share them. Read more...
“Can You Talk Less?”
One rude comment. Years of pent-up rage. One very unexpected response. I was sitting at a comedy show this weekend, kiki-ing with my husband, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I glanced behind me, only to be met with this line from the lovely lady sitting behind me: "Can you talk less?" Now, call it the Midwest in me or maybe the fact that I'm a recovering people pleaser, but I was stunned. My first instinct was to apologize. Instead, I bit my tongue, turned around, and patted... Read more...
F*ck, Marry, Kill
Volume 2: The Unexpected Crush Edition GIF: Dear Media Fuck: Harry Styles' drummer, Sarah Jones. We felt it was imperative that we confirm our suspicionsthat Harry was The Most Fuckable. So, we secured the tickets, flew our grown asses to Madison Square Garden, had a terrible midtown dinner, and MUCH TO OUR SURPRISE the gorgeous and outrageously cool Sarah Jones stole our hearts. Harry is perfect, but he kept his knees coveredfor our show so we had to demote him. Marry: Jodi Walker and Nora Princiotti of We're Obsessed Pod. Our... Read more...
We’d Like to Sell You Something. But First: You’re Fine.
What If a Wellness Brand Didn’t Make You Feel Like Shit? Last week we talked about how you're getting conned into buying a lot of shit.   Actually, not you, WE are getting conned into buying a lot of shit. There are few more enthusiastic consumers than Rachel (Target diehard, taught me the virtues of same-day delivery), Sara (will spend whatever she needs to on whatever it takes to look 29 for the rest of time—and she's crushing it so far!) and me (mostly comfy sweats and cozy birks that... Read more...
The $300 Billion Reason You Feel Terrible About Your Belly
Confessions of Three Marketers Who Are Tired of Selling You Stuff Heather, Sara and I have marketed consumer packaged goods (food, beverage, home & personal care, etc!) for our entire careers. I love my job. It is a puzzle to solve: what do people want? Who do they want it from? What, exactly, is important enough for them to spend their precious, hard-earned dollars on? (Indeed, a TALL ORDER at this particular moment). On some days, though, I feel exhausted by trying to convince people to buy things. There are... Read more...
Drink The Diet Coke
A small case for pleasure in a world obsessed with optimization. Last weekend, I was at our annual lobster bake with friends (I live in Maine). It was a potluck situation, there was a gaggle of 40-ish women, and a friend brought only two—TWO—Diet Cokes. (You know who you are. You will live with that shame forever.) The entire group saw the Diet Cokes, wanted one, and then looked on longingly as the lucky recipient of the extra Diet Coke sipped away. Naturally, the conversation turned to how much everyone... Read more...
Only 10 Milligrams
On Lexapro, midlife, and the strange pride we take in needing as little help as possible. Last week, while applying for disability insurance as part of some deeply unsexy business planning, my broker sent me an email containing this sentence: “Please note, with all of you on the medication Lexapro, the doctor’s note about the level of stress may cause the contracts to have an exclusion for mental and nervous disorders causing a disability.” I literally laughed out loud when I got this email. Being penalized for managing one risk... Read more...
I Founded a Wellness Brand. Here’s What’s Actually Worth It.
Dispatches from a woman in midlife who tries it all. Written by Sabeena Ladha A note from Plainspeak: We’re not interested in telling women there’s one right way to do midlife. So we bring in different voices, experiences, and opinions. Some you’ll agree with. Some you won’t. Good. That’s what makes it a conversation. Meet Sabeena... Allow me to introduce myself (and if you didn’t sing that in a Jay-Z anthem, are you even a Millennial??!). Hi, hi! I’m Sabeena — former wellness founder, current brand advisor, and writer of... Read more...
Why Can't I Remember Words Anymore?
Perimenopause Brain Fog, ExplainedBy Dr. Gillian GoddardYou know the word. You can practically see the word. You've used the word hundreds of times...And yet, suddenly, your brain has decided that word no longer exists.If you're in your 40s and finding yourself struggling with word recall, losing your train of thought or feeling generally less cognitively sharp, you're not imagining it.Cognitive changes are very common during perimenopause.And hormones can be part of the reason why.Does perimenopause cause brain fog?It can.Our brains have a lot of estrogen receptors.During the late reproductive stage... Read more...
My Mom Died Young. It Changed How I Think About Getting Older
On midlife, mortality, and making the most of what’s still to come. A couple of weeks ago, Sara wrote a beautiful email about midlife and how much the idea of it has changed. Our parents’ version was very “Over the Hill” banners, black balloons, and a general sense that the fun part was officially over. Cheery! But now, there’s this re-reframing happening. Less “it’s all downhill from here” and more of an acceptance, or even excitement, around this stage of life. A feeling that maybe this is actually when we... Read more...

The Science

Hormone Myths, Supplements & What’s Actually Worth Your Money
Q: Does soy cause breast cancer? Dr. Gillian Goddard: Soy contains phytoestrogens. So these are isoflavones, which are chemical compounds that are very similar to estrogen and act on the estrogen receptor. If you are someone who has a history of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, soy is probably not the best idea for you. But in women who have a normal breast cancer risk, have never had breast cancer themselves, soy is completely fine. Q: Can hormone testing tell you everything about your hormones? Dr. Gillian Goddard: If only.... Read more...
IUDs & Birth Control in Midlife
Q: Are hormonal IUDs a good option for women in their 40s? Dr. Gillian Goddard: IUDs can be great. In this case, we’re talking about progestin-eluting IUDs. So this is like Mirena, Kyleena, Skyla. They can do a bunch of different things. Certainly they work great as contraception. We love that. If you have heavy periods, which is more common as women get into their 40s, they can definitely help with that. Some women don’t have periods at all while they’re on Mirena or Kyleena. They can be used as... Read more...
Hormone Therapy — What We Know & What We Don’t
Q: How do you know if you’re a good candidate for hormone therapy? Dr. Gillian Goddard: The number one indication for starting hormone therapy is if you are having symptoms. And the symptoms that hormone therapy has been shown to treat very effectively are the classic perimenopausal symptoms: hot flushes, night sweats, sleep disruption. Now, there’s a million other symptoms that we now realize may be related to perimenopause. It’s not that estrogen and progesterone might not help those symptoms. It’s that we don’t have a lot of data that... Read more...
Why Are We Finally Talking About Menopause?
Q: Why is menopause suddenly getting so much more attention? Dr. Gillian Goddard: I think it’s, as it often is, sort of a perfect storm of factors. One is we’re in the midst of a generational shift. For a long time it was baby boomers who were going through perimenopause and menopause. Now it’s been more Gen X. Gen X has a very different attitude toward aging and toward what’s acceptable as far as medical intervention and the acceptance of risk versus benefit. And so I think there’s been a... Read more...
Why Can’t I Remember That Word? Brain Fog & Cognitive Changes in Perimenopause
Q: Why can’t I remember words like I used to? Dr. Gillian Goddard: Our brain is replete with estrogen receptors. And in perimenopause, and even in the late reproductive stage, our estrogen looks something like this: it’s spiking and dropping and spiking and dropping. It is actually the drop—it’s the velocity of the change—that creates a lot of symptoms because our bodies like stability. And so those big drops in estrogen have an effect on our brain, on neurotransmission and on executive function, all of which are important for word... Read more...
Protein, Creatine & Strength — What Women Need in Midlife
Q: How much protein do women actually need in midlife? Dr. Gillian Goddard: That varies a little bit based on your goals. Technically, the guidelines say you only need about 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Remembering that kilograms are pounds divided by 2.2. So when you think about it, if you’re 140 pounds, that means you only need something in the neighborhood of 60 grams of protein a day. But that’s sort of the bare minimum. If you are engaged in strength training, if you’re trying... Read more...
Cortisol — What It Is, What It Does & Why It Gets a Bad Rap
Q: What does cortisol actually do? Dr. Gillian Goddard: Poor cortisol gets such a bum rap. It needs a publicist. It needs some good PR. Cortisol is critical to us being alive. We have to have cortisol. And cortisol is supposed to rise and fall on a normal pattern over the course of a day. Cortisol is responsible for helping to maintain our diurnal variation, our normal circadian rhythms and sleep cycles. Cortisol is a big part of that. And so we need our cortisol to rise and fall over... Read more...
Am I in Perimenopause? Hormones, Testing & the Late Reproductive Stage
Q: Should the average woman over 40 get her hormones tested? Dr. Gillian Goddard: I’d love to have a straightforward answer to that question, but the answer really isn’t straightforward. The answer is really: it depends. Most of the time when it comes to reproductive hormones, we base the decision to treat, whether that’s with hormone therapy or something else, on symptoms and how those symptoms are affecting you. But if there’s something going on that might be related to other hormones—perhaps insulin and blood sugar or thyroid hormone—then we... Read more...
Creatine is having a moment. Annoyingly, it deserves it.
What the science actually says about creatine for women in midlife. Creatine is one of those supplements that seems to pop up in my algorithm all the time. But unlike a lot of trendy ingredients that are all hype, this one has substance. Before we dive into the data on taking creatine as a midlife lady, let’s quickly review what exactly creatine is and why it’s important. Creatine is a small molecule made from three different amino acids: arginine, glycine, and methionine. Most of us get creatine from eating meat,... Read more...
Why Can't I Remember Words Anymore?
Perimenopause Brain Fog, ExplainedBy Dr. Gillian GoddardYou know the word. You can practically see the word. You've used the word hundreds of times...And yet, suddenly, your brain has decided that word no longer exists.If you're in your 40s and finding yourself struggling with word recall, losing your train of thought or feeling generally less cognitively sharp, you're not imagining it.Cognitive changes are very common during perimenopause.And hormones can be part of the reason why.Does perimenopause cause brain fog?It can.Our brains have a lot of estrogen receptors.During the late reproductive stage... Read more...
No, You Don’t Need to Take a Multivitamin
And other midlife health myths Dr. Gillian wants you to stop believing. I am old enough (48, for the record) that a lot of the health information I picked up before going to medical school came from books and magazines. You had to seek it out by taking a trip to the library or the book store. While Seventeen magazine may have traded in some sensational stories, you could generally rely on the idea that the information you were reading was mostly true. My, how things have changed! Health information... Read more...
Meet the Woman Who Keeps Us Honest
Meet Dr. Gillian Goddard, our Chief Medical Advisor – and the reason this product does what it says it does. But don’t take it from us, take it from Gillian: Hello! I am so excited to introduce myself to you and tell you a little bit about why I chose to join Plainspeak. My name is Gillian Goddard and I am a Board-certified endocrinologist, a professor of medicine and an author. In all my roles, my goal has always been to help women become better advocates for themselves when it... Read more...