Sometimes, when the placenta doesn’t develop normally complications arise in your pregnancy. Molar pregnancy is one of the pregnancy complications, which occurs in 1 out 1000 pregnancies.
Read this informative article to know more on Molar Pregnancy.
What is Molar Pregnancy?
A molar pregnancy occurs when there is tumour in the uterus and gives rise to a mass of fluid – filled sacs in the placenta. This mass of fluid is also known as cysts. Here the placenta which helps in the development of the foetus is unable to provide the all-essential nutrients and oxygen to the baby inside you, thus harming you and the baby in your womb.
There are two kinds of molar pregnancy:
Complete Molar Pregnancy
In this kind of pregnancy, instead of the foetus, only the placenta tissue grows.
Partial Molar Pregnancy
In this condition, there is an abnormal formation of the placental tissue. The foetus might form, but it won’t be able to survive.
What Are the Causes of Molar Pregnancy?
This kind of complication is normally caused by an abnormally fertilized egg. Normally, human cells have 23 pairs of chromosomes – each of the pairs comes from you and your partner.
In the condition of complete molar pregnancy, one or two sperm fertilize an empty egg, all the genetic material comes from the father. As a result, the mother’s chromosomes are lost or inactivated, and that of the father is duplicated.
However, when partial or incomplete molar pregnancy occurs, a mother’s chromosomes remain, but a father supplies two sets of chromosomes.
Who are at Molar Pregnancy Risks?
Anyone can be at this risk of Molar pregnancy, but you’ll be in this condition if:
- You’re Younger than 20 years old or more than 35 years old
- You have already suffered this condition, you more likely to suffer again
What Are the Symptoms of Molar Pregnancy?
- As a result of this condition, you might be bleeding. The colour of the blood might range from bright red to brown up to 13 weeks of your pregnancy. Not just that! The blood might be accompanied by tissue clots or grape-like cysts. Too much of blood loss would mean low haemoglobin levels during your pregnancy.
- The placenta is responsible for producing a hormone called hCG. This hormone is also responsible for making you vomit during your pregnancy. When you’re suffering from molar pregnancy, you might have an abnormal count of placenta tissue, thus producing higher levels of hCG levels, which might ultimately result in your vomiting at an abnormal level.
- In this condition, however, tissues grow at a rapid pace, particularly in the second trimester, making your stomach look larger at the early stage of pregnancy and causing your pain.
How Is This Condition Treated?
There are chances that even with molar pregnancy, you might have a healthy pregnancy, however, you might have to be treated to prevent complications. As far as treatment methods are concerned:
you might have to remove your molar pregnancy with the method of Dilation and curettage (D&C).
In this condition, you might have a very small chance of cancer. Therefore, for its treatment chemotherapy drugs might be necessary.
Alternately, hysterectomy is also another treatment used for this problem. If you don’t want to be pregnant again, you can opt for this treatment. As through this surgery your entire womb would get removed.
All said and done, this condition is rare, but the treatment can take a toll on your emotional and mental health. However, doctor’s advice, therapies, and counseling sessions might help you a lot.
