Archive for the 'Molar Pregnancy' Category

Usually, the term gestational trophoblastic disease (GST) is a group of several conditions.

All the conditions lead to abnormal growth of cells inside your uterus.

This disease is a quick developing form of cancer and it affects your uterus after the pregnancy, or lead to abortion or a miscarriage.

Gestational trophoblastic disease is usually a metastatic disease, i.e. it can spread to any other places in your body. This disease is also referred to as choriocarcinoma. This is almost a curable disease.

Usually, gestational trophoblastic disease starts in the layer of cells called as trophoblast, which bound the little embryo. There are four types of conditions associated with GST, such as:

• Choriocarcinoma
• Persistence/invasive gestational trophoblastic disease
• Complete/partial hydatidiform mole
• Placental site trophoblastic tumors

Risk factors associated with Gestational trophoblastic disease:

• This condition can affect you at any age, but it is more common in pregnancies after 40 years of age or below 15 years.
• Gestational trophoblastic disease also has an increased risk of multiple pregnancies.
• 50% of cases with this condition had a chance for molar pregnancies.

Molar pregnancy is also known as gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) or hydatidiform mole.

A molar pregnancy refers to a condition where a genetic error during fertilization process leads to development of anomalous tissue within the uterus (womb).

Molar pregnancy is a rare condition. It is found that, in the United States, approximately one out of every thousand women is having a hydatidiform pregnancy.

Molar pregnancy is of two types: complete molar pregnancy and partial molar pregnancy.

In complete molar pregnancy, only placental parts grow without fetus formation. This type of molar pregnancy develops when the sperm fertilizes an empty egg. However, the placenta produces the pregnancy hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG).

It is found that approximately 15-20% of complete molar pregnancies lead to gestational trophoblastic disease and a very small percentage of this may turn into invasive cancer. However, almost hundred percent of these invasive cancer cases are cured with appropriate treatment.

In partial molar pregnancy, the placenta develops unusually into molar tissue. Any fetal tissue that grows is about to have serious birth defects. In some rare cases, a partial molar pregnancy occurs when twins are conceived but one embryo develops normally whereas the other grows with mole.