Angelina Jolie Planning Surgery to Remove Ovaries (Report)
The actress, who recently underwent a preventive double mastectomy, carries a "faulty" BRCA1 gene mutation and has a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer.
After having a preventative double mastectomy, Angelina Jolie -- who is genetically predisposed to contracting breast and ovarian cancer -- will next undergo an operation to remove her ovaries.
People magazine reports that she isplanning to have the procedure and "doing well" following her double mastectomy in February and reconstructive surgery last month.
Jolie -- whose mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died six years ago at age 56 after a 10-year battle with ovarian cancer -- carries the BRCA1 gene mutation. Doctors estimated that she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer.
"Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could," she wrote in a stirring New York Times op-ed earlier this week. "I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex."
Brad Pitt, the father of six children with Jolie, called his fiancee's actions "absolutely heroic" in an interview with the London Evening Standard. He also spoke with USA Today, saying: "I'm quite emotional about it, of course. She could have stayed absolutely private about it and I don't think anyone would have been none the wiser with such good results. But it was really important to her to share the story and that others would understand it doesn't have to be a scary thing. In fact, it can be an empowering thing, and something that makes you stronger and us stronger."
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