VietNamNet Bridge – More than 9,000 women in Viet Nam are found to have molar pregnancies a year, according to research conducted by the National Hospital for Obstetrics and Gynecology.

A report carried last week by the Phu Nu (Women) newspaper cited the research report as saying

Viet Nam is one of countries in the world with a high rate of the condition, which is characterised by pregnancies in which the placenta contains grapelike vesicles that are usually visible with the naked eye.

In twenty per cent of women found with the hydatidform mole, it develops into a choriocarcinoma, a quick-growing form of cancer that occurs in a woman's uterus, said Dr Le Quang Vinh.

At the Hung Vuong Obstetrics Hospital, 47 women were diagnosed with the hydatidform mole in May alone, nine of whom got choriocarcinoma due to complications.

Dr Dang Thi Hien, head of the Hung Vuong Obstetrics Hospital's postnatal service ward, said that there are many causes for the condition, including a single sperm combining with an egg which has lost its DNA and pregnant women lacking nutrition especially Vitamin A, and carotene.

Pregnant women above 35 years old are more likely to get the hydatidform mole, Hien said. The risk of getting hydatidform mole among pregnant women at the age of 35 is double compared to younger women, she added.

Many women with the condition do not know they have it because the symptoms are the same as foetal derangement, she said.

They do not visit the doctor to check up, staying at home instead to convalesce.

Hien advised pregnant women to visit doctors regularly because the mole can be detected into six or seven weeks of pregnancy by ultra-sound.

If it is not detected in time, women with hydatidform mole often suffer a miscarriage during the 16th or 18th week and bleed many times, she said and added that if these women do not receive timely emergency aid, their lives could not be saved.

Women who get hydatidiform mole are easy to suffer from choriocarcinoma, Hien said.

Besides taking Vitamin A and carotene supplements before and during pregnancy as well as visiting doctors regularly, the best way to avoid getting the hydatidform mole is for women to bear a child between the ages of 22 and 30, she advised.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News