Angelina Jolie Undergoes Double Mastectomy to Reduce Cancer Risk

Superstar Angelina Jolie disclosed in the New York Times op-ed that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy after doctors said she had an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer and 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer.

Jolie wrote that she has BRCA1, a 'faulty' gene that shoots up her chances of having breast and ovarian cancer. She decided to go for preventive mastectomy to be 'proactive' and to reduce the risk of the cancer for the sake of her children and Brad Pitt, her partner of eight years.

The 37-year-old actress' mother died of cancer and she said that she deeply regretted the loss. The actress wrote she often found herself "trying to explain the illness" that took her mother away from her. "My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was."

Jolie said that she chose to write bout her surgery with the intention of helping other women in a similar situation. According to the World Health Organisation statistics, around 458,000 people die of breast cancer every year. Around one in 300 to one in 500 women carry a BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene mutation, just like Jolie.

Jolie said that the decision of undergoing mastectomy was difficult, but she was happy to have made the choice. "My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."

In her writeup Jolie provided the details of her mastectomy procedures. She wrote that she completed three months of surgical process for the removal of both the breasts between early February and late April. In February she underwent 'nipple delay,' that removes the disease in the breast ducts behind the nipple and takes extra blood flow to the region.

She went under the knife again after two weeks. She said that the process can stretch up to eight hours. "You wake up with drain tubes and expanders in your breasts. It does feel like a scene out of a science-fiction film. But days after surgery you can be back to a normal life," she wrote.

After this, the actress said that nine weeks later she had a third and final surgery for reconstruction of the breasts and received implants.

Many women have chosen preventive mastectomy since genetic screening for breast cancer was developed, but such a move and its public announcement is unprecedented from a star so young and widely known as Jolie. 

The actress did not forget to mention that mastectomy in no way has affected her femininity. "I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.

Jolie wrote that Pitt was at the Pink Lotus Breast Center in Southern California for "every minute of the surgeries."

In 1999, Jolie won an Academy Award for 'Girl, Interrupted.' In recent times she has become very involved with her charitable work with refugees as a United Nations ambassador.