Follow up after molar pregnancy

A molar pregnancy occurs when the fertilisation of the egg by the sperm goes wrong and leads to the growth of abnormal cells or clusters of water filled sacs inside the womb. This condition is one of a group of conditions known as gestational trophoblastic tumours (GTT for short). If you have had a molar pregnancy, your doctors will follow your progress closely, to check that all the molar tissue has gone and for any signs of it coming back.

All women diagnosed with a molar pregnancy are referred to one of 3 specialist hospitals in the UK for their follow up. These centres are at

• Charing Cross Hospital in London
• Weston Park Hospital in Sheffield
• Ninewells Hospital in Dundee

The length of your follow up will depend on how quickly your hCG levels fall and whether you need further treatment.

You will have urine or blood tests to check your hCG level (human chorionic gonadotrophic hormone). The specialist hospital will give you a kit for your urine tests and you send the samples to them. If you are having blood tests, your GP surgery may be able to do them for you.

If you’ve had a D and C you’ll have urine and blood tests every 2 weeks. Once your levels are normal you will have urine tests once a month. The length of follow up will depend on your hCG levels and how quickly they return to normal. 

If your hCG level is normal within 8 weeks, you will have follow up for 6 months from your surgery. If your hCG levels come down more slowly than this, you will continue with follow up until 6 months after your first normal hCG level.

Your treatment centre will send you all the kits that you need for these follow up tests when you need to do them. So you don’t need to worry about remembering the timings yourself.

If you need chemotherapy treatment because you have persistent trophoblastic disease, there is information about follow up after persistent trophoblastic disease and choriocarcinoma in this section of CancerHelp UK.

It’s important not to get pregnant again until your doctors say it is safe for you to try. But if you do become pregnant before they recommend it, you must let your specialist team know. This is because your hCG levels will go up with a normal pregnancy, so they won’t be able to monitor you for the molar pregnancy by using your hCG levels. After you have had your baby, your doctor will check your hCG levels again.

Once you have finished follow up, you will be told to contact your specialist hospital at the end of any future pregnancy. This is so they can check your hCG level and make sure it has come back to normal. They usually do this about 6 to 8 weeks after any pregnancy (this includes miscarriage).

More than 98 out of 100 women (98%) who become pregnant after a molar pregnancy will not have another molar pregnancy. There is also no increased risk of complications in future pregnancies.

There is more information about contraception and future pregnancies in the living with molar pregnancy and choriocarcinoma section of CancerHelp UK.