ABSTRACT
Gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) was probably first described as ‘dropsy of the uterus’ around 400 BC by Hippocrates and his student, Diocles.1 In 1276 the attendants of Margaret Countess of Henneberg noticed that her abnormal delivery consisted of multiple hydropic vesicles. They probably believed that each vesicle was a separate conception, which led them to christen half John and half Mary. Marie Boivin (1773-1841), who worked as a Parisian midwife, was the first to document the chorionic origin of the hydatids.1 In 1895 Marchand described a malignant uterine disease of syncytial and cytotrophoblastic origin and made the link between hydatidiform mole and other forms of pregnancy.1
