Angelina Jolie Has Ovaries Removed After Cancer Scare
Angelina Jolie has revealed she has had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed after doctors detected possible signs of cancer.
The Oscar-winning actress has written about the procedure, which she had last week, in an opinion piece in the New York Times entitled Diary of a Surgery.
“It is not possible to remove all risk, and the fact is I remain prone to cancer,” she writes.
She also had a double mastectomy in 2013 after it was found she had the faulty BRCA1 gene, which sharply increased the chance of her developing breast and ovarian cancer.
Jolie, who is married to actor Brad Pitt and has six children, also wrote about her decision to have that procedure.
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“But I feel at ease with whatever will come, not because I am strong but because this is a part of life. It is nothing to be feared.”
She says she decided to have her second round of preventative surgery when doctors told her that “a number of inflammatory markers … are elevated, and taken together they could be a sign of early cancer.”
She writes: “I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt.
“I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn’t live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren.”
After having the procedure, doctors found Jolie had a “small benign tumour” on one of her ovaries “but no signs of cancer in any of the tissues”.
Her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died in 2007 after fighting cancer for 10 years. Her grandmother and aunt also died of cancer.
Jolie writes: “I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family.
“I know my children will never have to say, ‘Mom died of ovarian cancer’.”
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