OpenAI’s ChatGPT Health, Anthropic’s Claude chatbot, and Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok have become the new Google, where people can easily diagnose their symptoms. More than men, the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots have emerged as a go-to place for women who try to self-diagnose their unique conditions and save themselves from stigma and being shamed.
A November 2025 study, published in the journal BMC Public Health, showed how AI chatbots are working as ‘pocket doctors’ to offer intimate health support for young women in resource-limited settings or conservative societies.
The study showed that large language models, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, have emerged as digital tools offering anonymity, reducing embarrassment, and increasing accessibility to health advice on menstrual problems and polycystic ovary syndrome, as well as physical fitness and mental health, in countries or areas where women’s health issues are heavily stigmatized.
OpenAI recently said that over 230 million people globally ask health and wellness-related questions on ChatGPT every week.
With the AI chatbots vouching for their ability in diagnosing diseases, often performing on par with or even outperforming human physicians in specific, simulated scenarios, how helpful or risky can AI health diagnoses be, specifically for women? Let’s take a look.
In a recent case, an AIIMS doctor flagged the risks of using ChatGPT for health after a patient suffered bleeding after he self-diagnosed his backpain using ChatGPT and took non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
“All ailments are diagnosed by exclusion, and we advise medicines according to the investigation. Do not use AI for self-diagnosis or self-treatment,” said Dr. Uma Kumar, head of the AIIMS's Rheumatology department, while speaking to news agency ANI.
At the same time, there have been several cases that made headlines when AI chatbots could diagnose conditions that, for years, went undetected by human doctors.
Marly Garnreiter, a 27-year-old Parisian strategist, initially shrugged off her night sweats, prickly skin, and weight loss as manifestations of sorrow for her dead father -- until ChatGPT intimated blood cancer in 2024.