Karolinska Institutet
Hanna Mühlrad
Assistant Professor in Epidemiology
Department of Global Public Health
I am an Assistant Professor in Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet and hold a PhD in Economics from the University of Gothenburg.
My research focuses on sexual and reproductive health and women’s health, combining population-based data with causal and quasi-experimental methods. I study how health care, health policy, and social conditions shape women’s health and socioeconomic outcomes across the life course.
My work bridges epidemiology, causal inference, health economics, and health policy, with the aim of producing evidence that can inform clinical practice and public policy.
Research & Publications
My research examines the causal effects of reproductive health care and women’s health across the life course. I combine epidemiological and economic perspectives with population-based data and causal and quasi-experimental research designs. My work studies reproductive and obstetric health care, sexual health, abortion access and reproductive rights, intimate partner violence, assisted reproductive technologies, and the health and socioeconomic consequences of women’s health conditions.
A common theme across my research is the use of policy reforms, clinical practice variation, legal restrictions, and other sources of quasi-experimental variation to study how health care and social conditions affect health, family formation, and socioeconomic outcomes. My work sits at the intersection of epidemiology, causal inference, health economics, and health policy.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
2026 Moskatel LS, Smirnoff L, Mühlrad H, Yan J, Bohm-Starke N. The impact of migraine on fertility and family planning in the Nationwide Swedish Health Care Registry. Headache. doi:10.1111/head.70158.
2026 Harlow BL, Yan J, Mühlrad H, Lu D, Bohm-Starke N. The association between vulvodynia and subsequent morbidity across the life course. J Low Genit Tract Dis. 30(3):237–242. doi:10.1097/LGT.0000000000000939.
2026 Bhalotra S, Clarke D, Fernandez Sierra M, Mühlrad H. US Presidential Party switches are mirrored in global maternal mortality. BMJ Glob Health. 11(3):e020223. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2025-020223.
2025 Harlow BL, Mühlrad H, Yan J, Lu D, Bohm-Starke N. The association between urological conditions across the life course and provoked vulvodynia. J Womens Health. 34(7):918–923. doi:10.1089/jwh.2024.0933.
2025 Mantel Ä, Wollmann CL, Faxén J, Sandström A, Mühlrad H, Stephansson O. Adverse pregnancy outcomes, familial predisposition, and cardiovascular risk: a Swedish nationwide study. Eur Heart J. 46(8):733–745. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehae889.
2025 á Rogvi J, Bütikofer A, Krebs L, Mühlrad H, Wüst M. Cesarean section, childhood health, and schooling: quasi-experimental evidence from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Health Econ. 34(3):431–441. doi:10.1002/hec.4914.
2024 Harlow BL, Mühlrad H, Yan J, Linnros E, Lu D, Fox MP, Bohm-Starke N. Psychiatric morbidity across the life course and provoked vulvodynia: is it dependent upon the presence of non-stress-related immune dysfunction? J Sex Med. 21(9):800–806. doi:10.1093/jsxmed/qdae082.
2024 Mühlrad H, Olovsson M, Linnros E, Haraldson P, Bohm-Starke N. Health and socioeconomic well-being of women with endometriosis and provoked vestibulodynia: longitudinal insights from Swedish registry data. PLoS One. 19(9):e0307412. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0307412.
2023 Harlow BL, Coleman CM, Mühlrad H, Yan J, Linnros E, Lu D, Fox MP, Bohm-Starke N. The association between immune-related conditions across the life-course and provoked vulvodynia. J Pain. 24(8):1415–1422. doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2023.03.007.
2022 Haraldson P, Mühlrad H, Heddini U, Nilsson K, Bohm-Starke N. Botulinum toxin A for provoked vestibulodynia: 12 months' follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. J Sex Med. 19(11):1670–1679. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2022.08.188.
2022 Mühlrad H. Cesarean sections for high-risk births: health, fertility, and labor market outcomes. Scand J Econ. 124(4):1056–1086. doi:10.1111/sjoe.12474.
2022 Mühlrad H, Björkegren E, Haraldson P, Bohm-Starke N, Kopp Kallner H, Brismar Wendel S. Interpregnancy interval and maternal and neonatal morbidity: a nationwide cohort study. Sci Rep. 12:17402. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-22290-1.
2022 Fuxe V, Brismar Wendel S, Bohm-Starke N, Mühlrad H. Delivery mode and severe maternal and neonatal morbidity among singleton term breech births: a population-based cohort study. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 272:166–172. doi:10.1016/j.ejogrb.2022.03.014.
2021 Clarke D, Mühlrad H. Abortion laws and women’s health. J Health Econ. 76:102413. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2020.102413.
2021 Mühlrad H, Haraldson P, Harlow BL, Anell Olofsson M, Bohm-Starke N. Early life health in women with provoked vestibulodynia and/or vaginismus. J Womens Health. 30(6):799–806. doi:10.1089/jwh.2020.8551.
2020 Haraldson P, Mühlrad H, Heddini U, Nilsson K, Bohm-Starke N. Botulinum toxin A as a treatment for provoked vestibulodynia: a randomized controlled trial. Obstet Gynecol. 136(3):524–532. doi:10.1097/AOG.0000000000004008.
Other Publications
Bautrant E, Porta O, Murina F, Mühlrad H, Levêque C, Riant T, Ploteau S, Valancogne G, Levesque A. Provoked vulvar vestibulodynia: Epidemiology in Europe, physio-pathology, consensus for first-line treatment and evaluation of second-line treatments. J Gynecol Obstet Hum Reprod. 2019;48(8):685–688. doi:10.1016/j.jogoh.2019.04.011.
Policy & Public Engagement
Selected Policy Work
Supporting integration in schools: Evidence from a randomized targeted intervention — IFAU Working Paper 2026:1 ↗, with Kristina Sibbmark, Anna Sjögren, and Malin Tallås Ahlzén.
Våld i nära relationer: Riskfaktorer och konsekvenser — SNS Analys 102, 2024 ↗, with Arizo Karimi, Susan Niknami, Petra Ornstein, and Anna Sandberg Trolle-Lindgren.
US Presidential Party Switches Are Mirrored in Global Maternal Mortality — IZA DP No. 14915, 2021 ↗
Swedish children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic — IFAU Working Paper 2021:3 ↗
Abortion Laws and Women’s Health — VoxEU / CEPR Policy Portal, 2018 ↗
The Impact of Abortion Legalization on Fertility and Female Empowerment — EBA policy brief, 2018 ↗
Policy Experience
Committee Secretary, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Government Offices of Sweden, 2024–present.
Analyst, National Board of Health and Welfare, February–May 2018 — government mandate on women’s health and obstetric care.
Media
Talks & Seminars
Våld i nära relationer — SNS seminar, 8 April 2024 ↗
Podcasts & Interviews
Sveriges Radio, Bakom Pengarna / P1 — Här blir inga barn gjorda
Commentary & Media
Aftonbladet — coverage of intimate partner violence research
Svenska Dagbladet — research coverage
Göteborgs-Posten — caesarean coverage
Writing
CV
Academic & Policy Appointments
2026–present Assistant Professor in Epidemiology, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet.
2024–present Committee Secretary, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Government Offices of Sweden.
2022 Visiting Research Scholar, Department of Economics, Stanford University.
2020–2024 Researcher, Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU).
2019–2022 Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital / Karolinska Institutet.
2018–2019 Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Economics, Lund University.
Feb–May 2018 Analyst, National Board of Health and Welfare.
Education
2018 PhD in Economics, University of Gothenburg. Dissertation: The Impact of Reproductive and Birth Technologies on Health, Fertility and Labor Outcomes. Doctoral visit, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, 2014.
2012 MSc-level courses in Economics (90 credits), Econometrics and causal methods, Stockholm University.
2009 Bachelor’s in Economics, Stockholm University.
Contact
Hanna Mühlrad
Department of Global Public Health
Karolinska Institutet
hanna.muhlrad@ki.se
ORCID: 0000-0001-8618-7408
LinkedIn ↗