A member of the Pro-Health Organization, Dr. Maureen Muoneke is a former attending physician at Southern Maryland Hospital Center. Dr. Maureen Muoneke has provided complete prenatal and gynecologic care to pregnant women and other female patients.
A rare complication of pregnancy, molar pregnancy, or hydatidiform mole, is a form of the gestational trophoblastic disease which is caused by a group of tumors that develops inside the uterus during pregnancy. In a molar pregnancy, finger-like structures that normally surround embryo, called villi, swell abnormally.
There are two types of hydatidiform moles: complete hydatidiform moles and partial hydatidiform moles. Complete hydatidiform mole form when one or two sperm cells fertilize a single egg cell that lacks nucleus or DNA. In this case, the entire genetic material is paternal, and no fetal tissue will form. Partial hydatidiform mole, on the other hand, happens when two sperm cells fertilize a normal egg, which causes a mixture of some fetal tissue with the trophoblastic tissue if the villi. In both cases, a viable fetus will not develop. Surgery can be done to remove the tumors (moles).
Dr. Maureen Muoneke 