Tayla Montoya recounts rare partial molar pregnancy that threatened her health during fertility journey

Tayla Montoya, the wife of Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs winger Marcelo Montoya, has described a rare and frightening complication she faced while trying to become a mother, saying surgery and close monitoring spared her a course of chemotherapy.

Montoya, who is the mother of twin daughters Tiana and Milan, told listeners of The Montoyas podcast that doctors discovered a partial molar pregnancy after she had surgery to remove abnormal tissue. She said tests on the removed tissue showed two sperm had fertilised one egg, producing an abnormal growth that doctors warned could have continued to develop if it had not been completely removed.

"Normally when you have a miscarriage, there's a lot that doctors can't tell you, [about] what happened," Montoya said. "I got the surgery to remove the tissue and they were able to test it and find out that it was kind like a weird, weird, very rare pregnancy. Two sperm went into the one egg, so it was a partial molar pregnancy. It happens in one per cent of pregnancies, so it's extremely rare."

Montoya said doctors told her the abnormal growth carried extra chromosomes and could have continued to grow if any tissue remained. She said weekly blood tests measuring human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, were required after the procedure to ensure the hormone levels fell. If they had not declined, she said, the next step would have been chemotherapy to stop the tissue from progressing.

"I had to go for weekly blood tests to make sure my HCG was lowering, because if it wasn't, then that would show my body would still think I was pregnant and growing this abnormal tissue," she said. "Then we would've had to go through chemotherapy."

Montoya said she felt fortunate that the surgery removed the tissue in full. She has spoken publicly about the episode in part to raise awareness of molar pregnancies — a form of gestational trophoblastic disease caused by abnormal fertilisation — and to offer detail beyond the often-generic explanations given after miscarriages.

Fans and other women who have experienced similar conditions responded to Montoya's account on social media, thanking her for speaking out and describing their own experiences of rare molar pregnancies and of undergoing regular HCG monitoring.

In addition to discussing her medical experience, Montoya criticised what she described as the "mummy vlogger" trend on social media, saying that filming newborns during difficult early weeks had felt wrong to her. She said, as a mother of twins, turning crying infants into a recurring part of an online brand would have been the last thing on her mind during the hardest stages of early parenthood. Her husband, Marcelo Montoya, backed her view on the podcast, saying the world had "lost the plot."

Partial molar pregnancies are distinct from more common miscarriages, and health-care professionals typically advise monitoring HCG levels after tissue removal to detect persistent disease. Montoya's account highlights the clinical follow-up required in such cases and the emotional toll of an uncertain diagnosis.

Montoya and her husband have kept a public profile through social media and their podcast, and she said she hoped sharing the details of her experience would help other women seeking answers after unusual pregnancy complications. She has emphasised the importance of testing removed tissue and pursuing appropriate follow-up care so that potential complications can be identified and treated early.