Maria K. Houtchens, MD, MMs, is a neurologist who specializes in multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology. She is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical school. She served as Director of Clinical Care of the Brigham Multiple Sclerosis Center and is currently a co-director of Women’s Neurology program at MGB, and a director of Women’s Neurology Fellowship at MGB. Her clinical and academic work centers on women’s health in MS. This includes family planning, contraception, fertility treatment, pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause in women with MS and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.

She has written widely on the safety of disease-modifying therapies before and during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. She has also called for a sex- and gender-based approach to MS treatment, including sex-stratified analyses in clinical trials. She co-authored the Continuum review on pregnancy management in MS and other demyelinating diseases. She was senior author of a 2024 expert consensus that offers practical guidance on common misconceptions about pregnancy in MS. She has worked with international colleagues on family planning recommendations and on a review of sex effects across the lifespan in women with MS.