Post
by DebraP » Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:28 pm
Holly, you asked about chemical (and elsewhere about molar) pregnancies: this info is cut and pasted from Google results. hth, Debra.
A chemical pregnancy is basically an early miscarriage. Research has shown that half of all first pregnancies end in miscarriage. Due to the high sensitivity of home pregnancy tests, many women catch early pregnancies but end up going on to have their periods due to a chemical pregnancy.
In a molar pregnancy, the early placenta grows abnormally into a mass of cysts (called a hydatidiform mole). The baby (embryo) does not form at all or is malformed and cannot survive.
About 1 in 1,000 pregnancies is molar. Women who are over 40 or who have had two or more miscarriages are at increased risk of molar pregnancy. In the United States, women from Mexico, Southeast Asia and the Philippines are at greater risk than women of European heritage.
All molar pregnancies result from an abnormal fertilized egg with two sets of male chromosomes and either one or no sets of chromosomes from the mother. (In a normal pregnancy, the baby receives one set of chromosomes from each parent.)
Molar pregnancies are diagnosed with ultrasound The molar tissue must be removed from the uterus and the woman monitored to make sure that there is no tissue remaining. Remaining molar tissue can turn into choriocarcinoma, a rare form of cancer. Fortunately, this cancer is easy to detect and has a very high cure rate.
Most women with molar pregnancies go on to have healthy pregnancies later. The risk of reoccurrence is only about one to two percent.
What you can do:
Call your health care provider right away if you have any symptoms of a molar pregnancy:
Vaginal bleeding a week or more after a missed period, usually dark brown in color
Severe nausea and vomiting
Abdominal cramping
High blood pressure
If you have a molar pregnancy, you will need surgery to remove the tissue. Your hCG (a pregnancy hormone) levels will be monitored for about one year to make sure there is no remaining molar tissue. After a molar pregnancy, make sure you give your self time to recover physically and to grieve the loss of your pregnancy.
Me: 44, DH: 31
Game Over.
Dates: Aug 02 - May 06
Tries: 5 fresh + 4 frozen.
Results: 1 daughter, 2 m/c, 1 ectopic.