My GP didn't know what was wrong. But ChatGPT did

I’d been going to the doctor on and off for a couple of years with a range of symptoms — low iron, incontinence, urine infections, postmenopausal bleeding and clots. I just felt absolutely appalling. I’d had no answers and felt as though they wanted to get me off their backs. But I finally lost it with all the GP appointments when I had a vaginal prolapse and it was brushed off as normal for my age. I was 53, not 93! So I turned to ChatGPT.

My husband had died two years earlier. He had cancer but it had been repeatedly misdiagnosed, so I’d had many years of contact with the medical profession. My symptoms probably went back some time but I’d been ignoring my own stuff while my husband was ill, just trying to keep going.

However, our two children, now aged 17 and 20, were worried about me. I was completely run-down, so tired, and although HRT seemed to help, all these other symptoms kept coming up. After a postmenopausal bleed I had been diagnosed with a fibroid (a non-cancerous growth in my uterus) and adenomyosis (where cells that normally line the womb grow into the uterine wall), and felt it was all linked. But every time I went to the GP they’d look at one symptom at a time. Mention anything else and you’re told you need a separate appointment. And it was always someone different, so they wouldn’t see all my notes and join the dots. They just try to deal with the headline.

The doctors — all women — would blame the tiredness on me not looking after myself: “It’s fair enough you’ve not been eating properly with all you’ve been through.” But I was eating properly! I pointed out the fibroid and adenomyosis and the stabbing pain in my pelvis. And they told me it was understandable I’d be worried after what happened with my husband. I thought, can we look at me, not that?I was gobsmacked when I told one GP that I’d been bleeding heavily for about 30 days of the past three months and she asked if that was normal for me. I said, “It’s abnormal for any postmenopausal woman.”

They offered me a basic blood test “to put my mind at ease” — they obviously thought I was paranoid. And I couldn’t get an appointment for this test for another month. So I thought, this just can’t go on. I’d used ChatGPT before, to ask for holiday tips and a uni packing list for my eldest, but never anything medical. I put in all my symptoms, my medical history, every blood test result from the past five years. And it gave me a plan of action.

It was great being able to have my whole history analysed and to know that no question is a stupid one. I asked if the bleeding could be related to the fibroid and adenomyosis; it said it was likely. I asked if it could be causing the incontinence or the vaginal prolapse and it said yes, both were possible.

• ChatGPT has better bedside manner than real doctors

It was certainly giving me more information than “you’re old and you’re grieving”. And it gave me time to reflect in a way you don’t get in a ten-minute GP appointment — I could come back later with questions.

ChatGPT, to its credit, always said it wasn’t a doctor and never told me what to do. But it would suggest options based on the information I gave it. One of them was adjusting my HRT — but I replied to ask why I’d do that when I had it at the levels that protect my heart and bones, and it said, yes, that’s a good point. It was like a conversation.

Unlike in my countless GP appointments, I felt as if I was being listened to — ChatGPT was saying yes, you very much need medical attention; these symptoms aren’t going to go away on their own. You don’t have to live like that.

It suggested I had anaemia of inflammation, also called anaemia of chronic disease, rather than traditional anaemia — I had no idea there were different types until that point. It means the inflammation, probably linked to the fibroid in my case, causes a reduction in the production of red blood cells. ChatGPT, again unlike the doctors, knitted it all together.

Thankfully I could go private to do what it suggested — blood tests for iron and inflammation, which confirmed the anaemia, and an ultrasound, which showed that my fibroid had massively grown. I did also have the NHS blood test, though the doctor hadn’t even requested a test for my iron levels, so it revealed nothing useful.

I went back to the GP with all the results and was told I didn’t have anaemia. I thought if I said I had been using ChatGPT, I’d get the same eye-roll you get when you mention Dr Google. So I lied and said I’d shown the results to my pharmacist — who thought it was anaemia of inflammation. The GP obviously realised they had missed it, and begrudgingly agreed I could have a referral to a gynaecologist — though said it would be a long wait as fibroids weren’t a priority.

I asked for a private referral instead — thank God I did because when I saw the referral letter, it said I’d had six days of spotting, when in fact by then I’d had 60 days of heavy bleeding in the past six months. The GP still wasn’t representing my situation accurately. Whereas ChatGPT was suggesting questions for the gynaecologist.

When I saw the gynaecologist a few days later, they said the fibroid was very large and had been pressing against my bladder and ureter, hence the incontinence, and pressing into my pelvis, which was causing all the pain and inflammation. They said only a hysterectomy would improve how I felt — and said I should have it done sooner rather than later.

When I told ChatGPT what the gynaecologist had said, it asked how I felt about surgery and pointed out other options, but agreed that none of them were sure to work. It reassured me that the gynaecologist was suggesting the right course.

• ChatGPT: AI-powered chatbot nearly passes its medical exams

I had the hysterectomy and all my symptoms disappeared. Now I feel amazing — how I think I should feel for my age. Without ChatGPT I’d still be feeling dreadful — or worse. Had the fibroid grown more it could have caused permanent kidney damage, or burst, which would have been a medical emergency.

ChatGPT helped post-surgery too. I asked it what I could and couldn’t do and it gave me a really detailed recovery plan — how many steps to walk each day, how often to get up and about. It asked if I wanted it to suggest questions for my post-surgery review. It kept going back to all it knew about me. The ChatGPT boss has since said there’s no doctor-patient confidentiality with the service therefore no privacy for your conversations in a lawsuit, so I now delete conversations and use “ghost mode” — but I keep a record of all questions and answers so I can put everything back into ChatGPT when I want to pick it up again.

I can’t say ChatGPT will be as helpful in every medical situation, and no one should act on its advice without speaking to a professional. But it only ever gave me suggestions not instructions, and unlike my GPs, gave me time to think; it remembered what I’d told it; I felt listened to. And it has an excellent bedside manner.