Molar Pregnancy experience/advice

[mrsw26]

No experience yet since I just learned it was partial molar yesterday, but I'll post any updates here.

[mosdub]

Mind if I resurrect this thread? mrsw26, I am so sorry for your loss. We were Aug15 ladies together. If it isn't too hard I would like to know how your follow-ups went and what your experience was?

I found out about my PMP at my 20 week appointment and had a d&c 4-16-15. It seems like most women find out about their PMP much earlier so I'm still a little dumbfounded by it all. We had a normal heartbeat detected at 15 weeks (no ultrasound, just doppler) and by week 20 we went in for the anatomy scan and there was no heartbeat.

I haven't had a follow-up appt but will in a couple weeks. My doc said we would do blood work and an ultrasound. As I research I see I need to worry about my HcG dropping to confirm the molar cells are going away but he hasn't ordered me to be doing weekly blood draws. Out of curiosity I took a cheap pregnancy test today hoping that it would be faint or negative. It ended up being a pretty dark positive, so I know that I'm not some magical unicorn that had their HcG levels drop dramatically. I am worried that because it went to 20 weeks that I will have higher HcG and a higher cancer risk even though my doctor reassured me that that is not necessarily how it works.

If any women out there are lurking and have experience with a PMP I would greatly appreciate hearing your stories. I will update here as I know more.

[mosdub]

hawkward. Thank you so much for your reply though I am sorry for your loss. You really put me at ease regarding the hCG and blood draws. I was worried my doctor was too "whatever" about it but it sounds like it really is not something that needs to be monitored immediately. It is also reassuring to hear that you were cleared for TTC so soon after your levels dropped. I have my follow up next week, I will update for the benefit of anybody else that has to go through this.

[mrsw26]

So sorry for your losses, mosdub, hawkward,. Sorry I haven't been on in a while, I deleted Tapatalk from my phone and then forgot my passwords so I only log on when I have access to the laptop. Anyway, Partial molar sucks. Mine was discovered early but my OB did say that actually it's really common not to know until the 20 week scan. I too felt my doc was too 'whatever' about it but in the end it turned out okay. He waited until my follow up to the D&E appt to order a blood draw, so it was about 3 weeks later. I was fortunate enough that my HCG dropped to 3 which they considered negative, so he didn't order any more and cleared us to TTC after 3 normal cycles. After those 3 cycles, I POAS for my own piece of mind and got a negative result. DH and I are TTA until either the end of this summer or next summer, but I just needed to make sure no tissue was retained or growing back. I hope all goes well with you going forward!

[mosdub]

Update!

Today was my first follow-up appointment. We did the vaginal ultrasound and everything looked good. There was a small "mass" on the uterine lining, but my doc said it was likely just a clot and would be cleared at my first menstrual cycle. He apologized that he didn't catch the abnormality sooner. He said that while my diagnosis isn't all too rare in itself, the fact that it went as long as it did undetected is quite unusual. He pulled up our 10 week ultrasound pics, shook his head and said "yeah, that just looks like a normal early pregnancy..." I know it bugs him that he didn't catch it.

He told us that he has full confidence that we can and will have a successful pregnancy, and that whenever we were ready to TTC we could try.

It was then that I asked him about my hCG levels and whether we should track them. I said that out of curiosity I took a pregnancy test this weekend (3 weeks post D&C) and turned it positive. He said "Huh, well that is a very good question and valid concern. Let's do a blood draw and see where you are. I'll call you and we might want to have you come in for some follow-up blood tests". I told him I would actually like that.

So it seemed like he would have just let me walk out if I hadn't brought up the hCG as a concern. I'm patting myself on the back for being informed and voicing my concern! He's a great doctor and I'm glad he isn't dismissive. On the other hand, I'm surprised he didn't suggest the blood draw himself. He did say PMPs are less known to have high hCG, so maybe he thought it would clear up quickly on its own.

Overall I feel good about the check-up. It will be interesting to see what my beta numbers are and where we will go from there.

_____

Update (I'll just update this post with hCG #s instead of making new posts) 

4-16-15 = D&C  (beta unknown)

5-13-15 (4 weeks post loss) = 1179
5-18-15 (4.5 weeks post loss) = 715 
5-25-15 (6 weeks post loss) = 415
6-1-15   (7 weeks post loss) = 343
6-17-15  (9 weeks post loss) = 188
6-29-15  (10.5 weeks post loss)= 155.9 -- Doc was not pleased with this drop.  Decided to continue to monitor for 4 more months (to equal out to 6 months post D&C).  If it fails to lower to negative (less than 5) or goes up then we will move on to methotrexate (chemotherapy)
7-12-15  (12 weeks post loss) = 103
7-27-15  (14 weeks post loss) = 77 -- double digits, yo.  Also got first AF since loss.  Documented ovulation on BBT.  
8-10-15  (16 weeks post loss) = 49.8
8-24-15  (18 weeks post loss) = 33
9-8-15  (20 weeks post loss) = 23.2
9-22-15 (22 weeks post loss) = 14
10-6-15 (24 weeks post loss) = 10
10-26-15 (27 weeks post loss) =5   !!!!  Doctor considers this NEGATIVE!  Recommends 12 monthly draws confirming negative until TTC again.  Will update if anything changes. 
11-23-15 (32 weeks post loss) = 4.3 
12-21-15 (36 weeks post loss) = 1.6

January, February, March 2016 = all negative hCG

March 2016 = Cleared by OB.  Burned the bench. 

*If anyone finds this because they've experienced a molar pregnancy, please feel free to message me*
                    

[mrsw26]

Glad to hear! I think they worry about the risk a lot more with full molar pregnancies but still, you'd hope they'd check just to be safe.