The majority of women who have a molar pregnancy will not need any further treatment after the initial evacuation. Approximately 15% of women who have had a complete molar pregnancy and around 1% of those with a partial molar pregnancy will require additional treatment.
The two main reasons patients need further treatment is because either the hCG level starts to rise or reaches a plateau, or because there is heavy vaginal bleeding.
The two choices of treatment are a further surgical evacuation (D & C) or chemotherapy treatment. The majority of patients are treated with chemotherapy as this has a much higher success rate. A few patients may benefit from a repeat D & C, but these patients should have their cases discussed with the team at Charing Cross before this procedure is performed.
Normally patients who require chemotherapy treatment will be notified by the Charing Cross Team and admission arranged for investigations and to start treatment. Fortunately the overall cure rate for women who need treatment after a registered molar pregnancy is 100% and we aim to use treatments of low toxicity to achieve this.