The 39-year-old actress, who in 2013 underwent a preventive double mastectomy after genetic tests revealed that she was at a high risk of developing breast cancer, has revealed, in a new New York Times column, that she recently had surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes in an effort to prevent a cancer onset. Her doctors had discovered a small, if benign tumor on one of her ovaries, and indicated that she should consider having the preventive surgery at this time...now, about a decade before the earliest known onset of cancer in her (late) female relatives.
Marcheline Bertrand, Jolie’s mother, battled ovarian cancer for almost a decade before dying at age 56 in 2007, for instance.
Jolie also revealed in her brave writing that she is going through menopause now, and that she opted not to remove her uterus because “cancer in that location is not part of my family history.” She also acknowledged that while, “It is not possible to remove all risk, and the fact is I remain prone to cancer,” she knows that her family will never have to say that they lost her to ovarian cancer.
Finally, she stated that her impetus for speaking up is to shine a light on the options women have in deciding what course of action they can take when it comes to the care of their health because at the end of the day, “Knowledge is power.”
Right on.
Photo: ABCNews.Go.com.
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