Health and Me

Rachel V Thomas

Women Turning to AI for Health Detection: Helpful Tool or Risky Trend? | Women's Day Special

<span>OpenAI</span>’s <span>ChatGPT Health</span>, Anthropic’s <span>Claude</span> chatbot, and Elon Musk’s AI chatbot <span>Grok</span> have become the new Google, where people can easily diagnose their symptoms. More than men, the <span>artificial intelligence</span> (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 <span>Gemini</span>, 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 <span>AI health</span> 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. 

Doubtful, she dismissed the AI's recommendation. A biopsy, a year later, concluded that she had Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. 

Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, Ex-President of IMA Cochin and Convener of the Research Cell, Kerala, told HealthandMe that unlike search engines of the past that were essentially glorified libraries that would fetch individual files or documents based on our keyword search, AI can search through numerous sources simultaneously and arrive at conclusions that are better customized to the situation. 

That being said, an important limitation applies here. The machine algorithm can only deliver what we ask for. Thus, it may depend on the query being fed to the bot. 

“Asking the machine, 'I have a headache, what should I do?' is different from saying: 'I am a 28-year-old woman taking birth control pills. I am under stress from my desk job at a bank and haven’t slept well for five days. I drink too much coffee, my meal timings are irregular, and I’m having a headache. What should I do?' The answer in both of these situations will be different. Therefore, people seeking AI help to evaluate their symptoms must make an attempt to give a more complete picture and use the correct prompts,” Dr. Jayadevan said. 

<h2>How AI Can Be Risky For Women's Health </h2>

While it may be unfair to ask anyone not to use an AI chatbot for health questions, it is important to understand the limitations. 

<ul><li>Algorithmic bias: The AI models are largely trained on datasets that insufficiently represent women. Even the medical research has traditionally used the male body as a model system, thus AI trained on this data may fail to recognize how conditions like heart disease manifest differently in women, leading to underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis. </li></ul> 

“The current AI algorithms are trained on data that predominantly applies to males, and the information we retrieve could be biased in that direction. For instance, the symptoms of ischemic heart disease for men and women are different, as are the causes of abdominal pain,” Dr. Jayadevan said.

<ul><li>False positives: While AI can sometimes decode health issues that went undetected for years, there have also been instances where AI misinterpreted completely normal, benign, or non-target images as suspicious, leading to unnecessary follow-up tests and patient anxiety. </li></ul> 

Dr. Jayadevan called it "AI hallucinations,” which involves the equivalent of lying or making false information in response to a query. 

In 2025, David Alvaro, Editor in Chief, wrote in his Pharma's Almanac that AI tools used in precision medicine for dosing recommendations were found to produce less accurate results for women due to their reliance on pharmacokinetic data primarily derived from male participants. 

A 2022 study by University College London revealed that AI models designed to predict liver disease from blood tests were twice as likely to miss the disease in women compared to men. 

The AI models missed 44 percent of liver disease cases in women, compared to 23 percent in men, according to the study published in BMJ Health &amp; Care Informatics. 

Early in January, Google announced it would remove some of its AI health summaries after a Guardian-led investigation found people were being put at risk of harm by false and misleading information.

The company has said its AI Overviews, which use generative AI to provide snapshots of essential information about a topic or question, are “helpful” and “reliable”. 

<ul><li>Data privacy concerns: Gauging what the algorithm will do with the sensitive health information and what impact it will have on future insurance transactions or even employment may be uncertain. </li></ul>

“AI could be a powerful tool in healthcare, from diagnosis to women's health, by helping to find problems earlier and giving patients more personalized care. However, AI adoption must stay focused on people, making sure that technology improves clinical care instead of trying to replace it,” Dr. Sabine Kapasi, public health expert and UN advisor, told HealthandMe. 

Dr. Kapasi added that while AI can help fill in significant gaps in healthcare infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, “addressing the problems with fragmentation and making sure everybody enjoys equal access.” 

<h2>AI: A Helpful Friend, Not Your Doctor </h2>

Consulting a qualified doctor for symptoms is always the better option than blindly trusting AI diagnoses. 

Yet, AI-based health diagnostics have revolutionized healthcare significantly for women by improving early detection of diseases that are historically under-researched, underdiagnosed, or overlooked. 

In a widely reported case, a woman used Grok to analyze her daughter's wrist X-rays after an urgent care facility failed to identify a fracture. Grok successfully identified a distal radial head fracture that was subsequently confirmed by a specialist, helping the child avoid surgery.

More than traditional models that often lack gender-specific data, AI has the potential to analyze vast, diverse datasets that can help identify unique patterns in female physiology. 

<span>Pinky Promise</span>, a pioneering AI-powered women's digital clinic in India, is revolutionizing gynecological care via chat-first consultations on a mobile app without shame or judgment. It has helped over 350,000 women nationwide.

Similarly, Ema: Your AI Best Friend is another AI app designed to navigate "femalehood," offering empathy and early detection of cycle issues, acting as a 3 a.m. support rather than a diagnostic doctor. 

<h2>How AI Can Be Leveraged For Women's Health</h2>

AI can be used to decode long-standing research gaps, boost diagnostic accuracy, and enable personalized care for women across their lifespan. Key applications include:

<strong><span rel="noindex">Cancer Detection</span></strong>, where AI-assisted mammography can improve breast cancer detection. Some studies have shown a 20 percent increase in cancer detection without increasing false positives.

AI can also help analyze Pap smear images to detect cervical cancer.

In the case of <strong>endometriosis</strong>, a hard-to-diagnose condition specific to women, AI can help shorten the long diagnosis time for endometriosis (currently 7-10 years).

AI also helps optimize <strong>IVF procedures </strong>by analyzing (embryo) images and hormone levels. 

<strong>Mental Health </strong>is another area where AI chatbots and algorithms have shown prowess, especially in the early detection of postpartum depression, which affects 15 percent of women. 

“AI is neither a miracle nor a menace; it is a mirror of how wisely we choose to use it. I have always believed we must never start with health screening, but with ‘Health Risk Assessment’,” Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, chairman- Health Parliament, creator of SHE App &amp; former advisor to the Union Health Minister, told HealthandMe. 

“With AI, risk assessment becomes predictive, personalized, and action-oriented, accelerating the shift toward 'predictive prevention' -- pre-emptive care. For women, this could be a game changer: enabling earlier interventions, smarter decisions, and better outcomes. But it must be deployed at the right level, with digitally literate populations and strong clinical oversight,” he added.

Health Conditions A-Z

health

womens day

artificial intelligence

cancer detection

grok

ChatGPT Health

openai

Claude

pinky promise

gemini

AI health

Autoimmune Diseases: A Silent Health Crisis Affecting Women | Women's Day Special

Why Multiple Sclerosis Increases Emotional Burden Among Women

Health & Wellness

8 Sit-Up Variations to Strengthen Your Core and Build Stability

Benefits Of Ayurvedic Health Supplement Ashwagandha

9 Anti-Inflammatory Breakfast Options You Should Try

5 Foods You Should Avoid For PCOS, Says Gynecologist

Love Sitting With Your Legs Crossed? Here’s You Should Avoid It

6 Daily Foods That Are Secretly Increasing Your Calories

9 Brain Boosters You Should Do Everyday

Hip Exercises That Will Keep You Flexible As You Age

9 Leg Exercises Office Workers’ Should Do At Home

Benefits of Having Herbal Tea Every Morning

9 Daily Habits That Boost Your Brain Power

Lower-Body Exercises That Are Game-Changers

How Drinking Apple Cider Vinegar Helps You

Aging Myths You Should Never Believe

Superfoods That Support Your Gut Health

What Happens To Your Body When You Eat Instant Noodles Every Day?

Health Issues Premature Babies Often Face

Exercises Office Workers Should Do For Their Heart Health

Reasons Why You Should Add Raw Turmeric To Your Diet

Benefits Of Drinking Milk At Night: Why You Should Do It

Food That Provides Vitamin B12 Naturally In Your Diet

Surprising Health Benefits Of Fenugreek Seeds

9 Superfoods You Should Eat For Your Brain Health

What Does Mental Health Support Look Like At Work?

Long Stretches You Should Do To Unwind From Your Day

Colon Cancer In Young Adults: Early Symptoms You Should Know

Health Benefits Of Eating Dry Fruits Everyday

Are You At Risk For Fried Rice Syndrome?

These Tests Reveal How Well You Are Aging

Lower-Back Exercises You Should Do After A Long-Day's Work

Children’s Diet – What Kids Need To Eat For Immunity Building

Common Diabetes Myths That Could Hurt Your Health

Love Spicy Food? Here’s How It Affects Your Health

Superfood List: Veggies And Fruits You Must Have For Immunity

Foods People With IBS Should Avoid

Exercises To Improve Digestion

Easy Work Lunches You Can Make In The Morning

Hunger Vs Craving: Difference Explained In 60 seconds

These Things Can Cause Your Heart To Age Faster

High Carb Foods That Are Actually Healthy

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. Doubtful, she dismissed the AI's recommendation. A biopsy, a year later, concluded that she had Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, Ex-President of IMA Cochin and Convener of the Research Cell, Kerala, told HealthandMe that unlike search engines of the past that were essentially glorified libraries that would fetch individual files or documents based on our keyword search, AI can search through numerous sources simultaneously and arrive at conclusions that are better customized to the situation. That being said, an important limitation applies here. The machine algorithm can only deliver what we ask for. Thus, it may depend on the query being fed to the bot. “Asking the machine, 'I have a headache, what should I do?' is different from saying: 'I am a 28-year-old woman taking birth control pills. I am under stress from my desk job at a bank and haven’t slept well for five days. I drink too much coffee, my meal timings are irregular, and I’m having a headache. What should I do?' The answer in both of these situations will be different. Therefore, people seeking AI help to evaluate their symptoms must make an attempt to give a more complete picture and use the correct prompts,” Dr. Jayadevan said. How AI Can Be Risky For Women's Health While it may be unfair to ask anyone not to use an AI chatbot for health questions, it is important to understand the limitations. The major limitations include:  Algorithmic bias: The AI models are largely trained on datasets that insufficiently represent women. Even the medical research has traditionally used the male body as a model system, thus AI trained on this data may fail to recognize how conditions like heart disease manifest differently in women, leading to underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis.  “The current AI algorithms are trained on data that predominantly applies to males, and the information we retrieve could be biased in that direction. For instance, the symptoms of ischemic heart disease for men and women are different, as are the causes of abdominal pain,” Dr. Jayadevan said. False positives: While AI can sometimes decode health issues that went undetected for years, there have also been instances where AI misinterpreted completely normal, benign, or non-target images as suspicious, leading to unnecessary follow-up tests and patient anxiety.  Dr. Jayadevan called it "AI hallucinations,” which involves the equivalent of lying or making false information in response to a query. In 2025, David Alvaro, Editor in Chief, wrote in his Pharma's Almanac that AI tools used in precision medicine for dosing recommendations were found to produce less accurate results for women due to their reliance on pharmacokinetic data primarily derived from male participants.  A 2022 study by University College London revealed that AI models designed to predict liver disease from blood tests were twice as likely to miss the disease in women compared to men. The AI models missed 44 percent of liver disease cases in women, compared to 23 percent in men, according to the study published in BMJ Health & Care Informatics. Early in January, Google announced it would remove some of its AI health summaries after a Guardian-led investigation found people were being put at risk of harm by false and misleading information. The company has said its AI Overviews, which use generative AI to provide snapshots of essential information about a topic or question, are “helpful” and “reliable”. Data privacy concerns: Gauging what the algorithm will do with the sensitive health information and what impact it will have on future insurance transactions or even employment may be uncertain. “AI could be a powerful tool in healthcare, from diagnosis to women's health, by helping to find problems earlier and giving patients more personalized care. However, AI adoption must stay focused on people, making sure that technology improves clinical care instead of trying to replace it,” Dr. Sabine Kapasi, public health expert and UN advisor, told HealthandMe. Dr. Kapasi added that while AI can help fill in significant gaps in healthcare infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, “addressing the problems with fragmentation and making sure everybody enjoys equal access.” AI: A Helpful Friend, Not Your Doctor Consulting a qualified doctor for symptoms is always the better option than blindly trusting AI diagnoses. Yet, AI-based health diagnostics have revolutionized healthcare significantly for women by improving early detection of diseases that are historically under-researched, underdiagnosed, or overlooked. In a widely reported case, a woman used Grok to analyze her daughter's wrist X-rays after an urgent care facility failed to identify a fracture. Grok successfully identified a distal radial head fracture that was subsequently confirmed by a specialist, helping the child avoid surgery.More than traditional models that often lack gender-specific data, AI has the potential to analyze vast, diverse datasets that can help identify unique patterns in female physiology. Pinky Promise, a pioneering AI-powered women's digital clinic in India, is revolutionizing gynecological care via chat-first consultations on a mobile app without shame or judgment. It has helped over 350,000 women nationwide. Similarly, Ema: Your AI Best Friend is another AI app designed to navigate "femalehood," offering empathy and early detection of cycle issues, acting as a 3 a.m. support rather than a diagnostic doctor. How AI Can Be Leveraged For Women's HealthAI can be used to decode long-standing research gaps, boost diagnostic accuracy, and enable personalized care for women across their lifespan. Key applications include:Cancer Detection, where AI-assisted mammography can improve breast cancer detection. Some studies have shown a 20 percent increase in cancer detection without increasing false positives.AI can also help analyze Pap smear images to detect cervical cancer.In the case of endometriosis, a hard-to-diagnose condition specific to women, AI can help shorten the long diagnosis time for endometriosis (currently 7-10 years).AI also helps optimize IVF procedures by analyzing (embryo) images and hormone levels. Mental Health is another area where AI chatbots and algorithms have shown prowess, especially in the early detection of postpartum depression, which affects 15 percent of women.  “AI is neither a miracle nor a menace; it is a mirror of how wisely we choose to use it. I have always believed we must never start with health screening, but with ‘Health Risk Assessment’,” Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, chairman- Health Parliament, creator of SHE App & former advisor to the Union Health Minister, told HealthandMe. “With AI, risk assessment becomes predictive, personalized, and action-oriented, accelerating the shift toward 'predictive prevention' -- pre-emptive care. For women, this could be a game changer: enabling earlier interventions, smarter decisions, and better outcomes. But it must be deployed at the right level, with digitally literate populations and strong clinical oversight,” he added.