Ulrika Dahl is Co-work Package Leader at New Research Centre on Women’s Health

In 2026 FORTE and VR awarded 76 million SEK over 6 years for establishing WHOLE, a new Research Centre led by Uppsala University professor Alkistis Skalkidou at the Department of Women’s and children’s health, dedicated to interdisciplinary research on women’s health through the life span. This is a unique initiative where experts from medicine and social sciences/humanities will work closely to explore and produce new knowledge concerning women’s health in 6 distinct and interrelated work packages.

Professor Ulrika Dahl co-leader of Work package on Menopause

Within WHOLE, professor Ulrika Dahl, Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University, is co-leader for Work package 5 on Menopausal Transition and Aging, together with professor Inger Sundström Porumaa. Menopausal transition is a critical midlife inflection point where hormonal, psychological, and somatic changes intersect. Beyond vasomotor symptoms, perimenopause is linked to depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and cognitive complaints, yet these aspects have long been neglected or dismissed. Many women report feeling left alone, poorly informed, and unsupported in healthcare encounters, reflecting enduring biases and communication gaps. At the same time, research on menopause and brain aging remains fragmented, with conflicting findings on hormone therapy and its effects on cognition and brain structure. Disparities in symptom burden and treatment access, shaped by socioeconomic status, culture, and healthcare bias, further underscore the need for integrative, life-course approaches. Work package 5 will investigate how menopause shapes women’s mental health, brain function, and lived experience. In the first phase, Ulrika will co-ordinate and contribute to qualitative studies, social-media analyses, and co-creation of a generative-AI (GenAI) menopause coach which will explore how women perceive and navigate this transition, aiming to translate evidence into more personalised and supportive care.

How did you become involved in WHOLE?

- Interdisciplinary research is not only increasingly popular and supported by Uppsala University, but also completely necessary for solving complex problems in today’s world, including women’s health which has been historically under researched within conventional research, Ulrika says.

- I have always been doing interdisciplinary research and taken a deep interest in questions of health as central to constructions of gender, sexuality and embodiment. Since coming to Uppsala University in 2016 I have especially loved the opportunity to learn from colleagues in medicine for my research on queer assisted reproduction. Since 2021, it has been a pleasure to work within WOMHER and I have learned a tremendous amount from working with a fantastic group of colleagues there. WHOLE in many respects builds on work within WOMHER, which at its foundation had strong support from the university to train 16 PhD students, including Matilda Lindgren who defended her PhD thesis in gender studies in February 2026, Ulrika continues.

Why do we need research on menopause?

- In recent years, menopause has gained a lot of attention in media, social media and popular culture. We need to understand what this tells us about gender and about differently situated women’s lives and careers and identity construction. When working on the topic of menopause, I am deeply committed to expanding understandings of different experiences of menopause beyond the over-researched majoritarian population. To that end, we will be working closely with qualitative researchers in reaching a broader segment of the population. For me, it is especially important to learn from and work with health practitioners who serve women with migration experiences and those who live in areas that are almost entirely neglected by today’s politicians. In a time when large parts of the population are constructed as a problem to be regulated, criminalised and deported, it is especially important to attend to health concerns, including reproductive health and menopause.

Beyond being part of the management group of WHOLE, Ulrika hopes to contribute to acquiring additional funding for interdisciplinary research on menopause, especially for emerging scholars in the post doctorate phase.

More about WHOLE

Led by Uppsala University, in partnership with key researchers at the Karolinska Institutet and relevant stakeholders, the proposed Centre will unite leading expertise, novel methodologies and unique datasets to pursue cutting-edge research aligned with Sweden’s national initiative on Women’s Health and Diseases. The vision is to build a dynamic, interdisciplinary, and sustainable research environment that advances women’s health—focusing on conditions at the intersection of reproductive transitions, mental health, and pain (e.g. endometriosis, premenstrual distress, perinatal depression and childbirth-related pain); conditions that exclusively or disproportionately affect women and remain under diagnosed, under treated, or poorly supported in healthcare. These areas are often marked by knowledge gaps, reductionist research, fragmented care, and large groups with unmet needs. WHOLE’s interdisciplinary and participatory approach bridges clinical, cultural, and existential perspectives across women’s life course.
Bringing together 17 disciplines from technology and medicine to social sciences and the humanities, WHOLE will address biological, psychological, social, and cultural dimensions of women’s health through experimental research, longitudinal cohorts, AI-driven prediction, patient-centered interventions, digital humanities, and participatory methods.

The Centre’s research will deepen understanding of hormone sensitivity, neuro-immune pathways, and brain aging; develop diagnostic innovations and precision interventions; and inform preventive and stepped-care models for under recognised conditions at the intersection of gynaecology and psychiatry. Moreover, WHOLE will investigate social determinants, inequities, legal-ethical challenges, as well as cultural representations shaping women’s experiences of health and care. Close collaboration with patients, advocacy groups, healthcare providers, and policymakers will ensure that research translates into practice, bridging critical knowledge gaps while promoting a holistic, equitable, and historically informed understanding of common yet neglected conditions.
By pioneering new models of research and care, WHOLE will improve health outcomes, reduce stigma, and advance equity for women across their lifespan. Its impact will extend well beyond academia, contributing to the UN Agenda 2030 goals on health, gender equality, and reduced inequalities—ensuring both scientific excellence and tangible societal benefit.