A molar pregnancy is fairly rare, it is estimated that one in every one thousand women in the United States that detect early pregnancy symptoms will have this type of pregnancy. It is more common in some countries overseas in Southern Asia, the Philippines and also in Mexico, although no one is quite sure as to why. The cause of a molar pregnancy has something to do with a genetic defect that can happen when the sperm and the egg connect during the fertilization process. This defect causes abnormal cells to form that at first might seem like a growing embryo, except it will grow much faster than a true embryo would. The growth from a molar pregnancy is said to have the appearance of a cluster of grapes, but is really a big cluster of cells. There are certain women that are more prone to this rare form of a pregnancy and these are women over 40 years of age, women have had had one in the past, women with a history of having miscarriages, and they also say that Caucasian women in the United States are at a higher risk than black women.

There are also two types of molar pregnancies, one is a partial molar pregnancy and the other is a complete molar pregnancy. With a complete molar pregnancy the placenta forms but there is no baby and are formed when sperm fertilizes an empty egg, the placenta will still form the pregnancy hormone causing a pregnancy test to show you are pregnant, but in reality there really is no baby. A partial molar pregnancy is a mass that has abnormal cells and an embryo that is full of defects, but soon the embryo will be devoured by the mole. Some of the signs of this type of pregnancy are vaginal bleeding, high blood pressure, vomiting, extremely high pregnancy hormone (hCG) levels, and there will also be no heartbeat detected. Your doctor may also give you a sonogram test and this will detect the grape like clusters. Many times the molar pregnancy will break apart and come out on its own, if this is not the case you will need to go have it removed by your doctor using suction, or else a process they refer to as dilation and evacuation, or a D & C as the doctors and nurses will call it.