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Hannah LaChapelle spent years suffering from recurring shoulder pain that doctors couldn’t explain. Artificial intelligence and doctors at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center helped her find an answer.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Hannah LaChapelle poses for a portrait in Houston, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. She’s now living without pain for the first time in years.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
When doctors couldn\u2019t identify the cause<\/a> of Hannah LaChapelle\u2019s intense shoulder pain, she made one last-ditch effort to find an answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Houston resident typed her symptoms into ChatGPT last summer and asked the artificial intelligence chatbot for a possible diagnosis.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Sign up for alerts from the Medical Mystery Files<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n LaChapelle, 29, had been dealing with pain in her right shoulder since she was a teenager, but it worsened after she moved to Texas in 2023. The pain typically lasted for a full week each month and felt like someone was stabbing her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like someone was in there with a hot poker, all inside my shoulder and up into my neck,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n By summer 2025, the pain was lingering for three weeks at a time, and LaChapelle spent the rest of the month living in fear of its inevitable return. She was taking the maximum recommended dosage of ibuprofen to control the pain during the day and relying on NyQuil to fall asleep at night.<\/p>\n CONTACT US: Tell us about a medical condition that was difficult to diagnose<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n LaChapelle knew it was a longshot to ask AI for help, so she was shocked when ChatGPT offered a diagnosis that matched all her symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n But she was also discouraged, because the explanation reminded her of a conversation she had with her former doctor when she was 13 years old. That doctor said LaChapelle might have a chronic medical condition that is usually associated with pelvic pain, but there was nothing to do except manage the symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, great,\u2019\u201d LaChapelle said. \u201cI was probably sassy to ChatGPT. Like \u2018So what do I do about this? Where do I go?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Fortunately, the chatbot had additional advice to offer. It directed her to doctors at Baylor College of Medicine<\/a> who specialized in treating the chronic medical condition.<\/p>\n Debilitating shoulder pain\u00a0<\/p>\n LaChapelle, a Massachusetts native, first noticed the shoulder pain when she was a teenager living in the Boston area.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It began as discomfort, as if someone was pressing on her shoulder. It got worse when she exercised, but it didn\u2019t affect the range of motion in her right arm.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spinal specialist prescribed her gabapentin, a medication primarily used to control seizures and relieve nerve pain after shingles, but LaChapelle decided not to take it after looking into possible side effects. A physical therapist suggested she might have thoracic outlet syndrome, caused by pressure on blood vessels or nerves between the neck and shoulder.\u00a0<\/p>\n MORE COVERAGE: A Houston woman thought she had dementia. Then a doctor saw something new in a scan of her brain.<\/a><\/p>\n The pain became more severe after LaChapelle moved to Texas in the fall of 2023. It became unbearable by the time she attended the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo six months later.\u00a0<\/p>\n She called her father, a paramedic who is married to a nurse, and her mother, who works at a medical spa, but they didn\u2019t know what was wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI have a picture on my phone of me pointing to (my shoulder), and I\u2019m like, \u2018I’m dying right now. This is what hurts. What do you think it could be?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cFrom there it was just all downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n Searching for an answer\u00a0<\/p>\n LaChapelle\u2019s primary care doctor and gynecologist couldn\u2019t pinpoint the problem, either, so she tried to live with the pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n At first, she couldn\u2019t sleep on her right side, and then it became difficult to sleep at all without taking NyQuil. Her breathing became labored, especially when she took deep breaths when she exercised.\u00a0<\/p>\n The pain initially lingered a full week, but over time it lasted closer to two or three. She stopped planning trips because she worried they\u2019d be ruined by constant shoulder pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The pain also took a toll on LaChapelle\u2019s mental health. Even when she wasn\u2019t hurting, she lived with the anxiety of knowing it would return. And the discomfort made her irritable, which she believes made her difficult to be around.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her roommate, Bri Caron, helped by getting pain medication or warming up heating pads for LaChapelle. The two have been roommates since they lived together in Boston and it was difficult for Caron to see her close friend in so much pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really hard because it was the exact opposite of who I know her to be,\u201d Caron said. \u201cI knew something was wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Spotting a pattern\u00a0<\/p>\n LaChapelle refused to give up on finding a diagnosis, so she kept a log on her phone of her symptoms and the dates when she was hurting. She started to see a pattern while reviewing her notes in the spring of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n The shoulder pain seemed to be occurring at the same time each month, overlapping with her menstrual cycle. It got worse about six months after she stopped taking birth control when she first moved to Texas, but she never suspected that shoulder pain could be connected to her period.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt took months to put together that it was following such a strong pattern,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her gynecologist brushed it off as a coincidence, but LaChapelle couldn\u2019t shake the feeling her symptoms might be related to her menstrual cycle. She decided to ask ChatGPT.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Doctors dismissed a Texas mom’s pain and hallucinations for 20 years. Then she made a stunning discovery.<\/a><\/p>\n The chatbot offered only one possible diagnosis: thoracic endometriosis, a rare condition where endometrial tissue that is typically found in the uterus instead grows in the chest cavity.\u00a0<\/p>\n When LaChapelle was 13, her doctor suggested the heavy bleeding she experienced during her period might be a sign of endometriosis. But the doctor told her there was nothing to be done except put her on birth control to manage the symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Things had changed over the 15 years since she\u2019d spoken to the doctor, though. ChatGPT suggested that LaChapelle reach out to doctors at Baylor College of Medicine who specialized in treating endometriosis.<\/p>\n Hannah LaChapelle poses for a portrait in Houston, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. \u00a0LaChapelle noticed the recurring shoulder pain that ailed her for years seemed to follow a pattern, so she asked artificial intelligence to help her find a cause that doctors struggled to identify.<\/p>\n Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n An underdiagnosed condition\u00a0<\/p>\n LaChapelle\u2019s story is common for women with thoracic endometriosis<\/a>, who typically experience symptoms for five to seven years before they\u2019re diagnosed, said Dr. Shanda Blackmon, a thoracic surgeon and director of the Lung Institute at Baylor.\u00a0<\/p>\n Endometriosis is relatively common; the condition is a leading cause of infertility that affects roughly 10% of women during their reproductive years. But just one in eight women with endometriosis see it spread to their chest cavity,\u00a0Blackmon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Blackmon suspects its true prevalence is higher, though, because many doctors are not aware of the disease or mistake it for other lung or breathing conditions. It\u2019s also tricky to identify because the only definitive way to diagnose is by threading a camera into a patient\u2019s chest.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n