Miscarriage: Molar Pregnancy

Miscarriage is so tough to talk about guys.  Mr. and I were trying to start a family for nearly a year when I finally got the elusive double lines on a home pregnancy test. We were so overwhelmed with joy that we announced to both of our families in an elaborate way. 

Everything seemed to be progressing normally, I didn’t have any odd symptoms or anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Our dream came crashing down during our first ultrasound at 12 weeks.  We were staring at ultrasound screen trying to decipher where the baby was when my doctor looked at me, and I’ll never forget what she said…”this is not what we would expect to see”.  Honestly, at this point I didn’t know what exactly she meant, I thought we were still having a baby! Soon, she started discussing scheduling a D&C at the hospital later that week.  And….that’s when it sunk in – there wasn’t a baby in my belly.  The pregnancy we had strived so hard for was instead a miscarriage. So, of course I went home, opened a bottle of wine and cried the night away while my husband shared the bad news and that I’d be going in for surgery in a couple of days to remove the pregnancy. 

I had a complete molar pregnancy which is where an empty egg is fertilized and grows into a tumor.  You can read more about molar pregnancies @ the Mayo Clinic.

Beyond the horrible news that I wasn’t going to be bringing home a baby in a few months, I learn that I have bigger problems.  After the D&C I had to return to my doctor’s office weekly to get my blood drawn to ensure my HCG (pregnancy hormone) was decreasing and that the molar didn’t turn into cancer.  Because of this, we were told to not try and conceive again for at least six months.

Below are my HCG drop stats (when I was dealing with a molar, I was scouring the internet in search of other drop stats to compare mine to):

Week 2: 518

Week 3: 109

Week 4: 29

Week 5: 11

Week 6: negative

I did go in for a redraw four weeks after my first negative draw and it was zero giving us assurance that my OB got all of the molar out and also that it didn’t start to “regrow”.

My molar pregnancy was my very first pregnancy – so if you are here and have lost hope, don’t fear, I went on to have three healthy/normal pregnancies/babies.