Angelina Jolie Removes Ovaries
After Cancer Scare
Two years after Angelina Jolie decided to have a preventive
double mastectomy, the Oscar winner revealed she made
another bold medical move to lessen her risk of ever getting
cancer.
In an op-ed for the New York Times, Angelina broke down
why she decided to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes
removed in a recent surgery. A while ago, she found out
through a “simple blood test” that she carried a mutation in
the BRCA1 gene. “It gave me an estimated 87 percent risk
of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer,”
she wrote. “I lost my mother, grandmother and aunt to
cancer.”
Because of the cancer history in her family, the Maleficent
star said she had been planning her latest surgery for quite
some time. “It is a less complex surgery than the
mastectomy, but its effects are more severe. It puts a
woman into forced menopause,” she continued. “So I was
readying myself physically and emotionally, discussing
options with doctors, researching alternative medicine, and
mapping my hormones for estrogen or progesterone
replacement. But I felt I still had months to make the date.”
Two weeks ago, though, she got a call from her doctor
about her blood-test results. Although her CA-125 – which
is used to monitor ovarian cancer – was normal, she had
some “inflammatory markers” that “could’ve been a sign of
early cancer.”
“I went through what I imagine thousands of other women
have felt,” she went on. “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.”
She called her husband, Brad Pitt, who hopped on a plane
from France “within hours” to be by her side, and went to
see her surgeon the same day. She later got results that
revealed her tumor test was negative and her PET/CT scan
was clear, but there was still a chance she had early stage
cancer. “To my relief, I still had the option of removing my
ovaries and fallopian tubes and I chose to do it,” she
continued.
So, she did. “I did not do this solely because I carry the
BRCA1 gene mutation, and I want other women to hear this.
A positive BRCA test does not mean a leap to surgery,” she
added. “In my case, the Eastern and Western doctors I met
agreed that surgery to remove my tubes and ovaries was
the best option, because on top of the BRCA gene, three
women in my family have died from cancer. My doctors
indicated I should have preventive surgery about a decade
before the earliest onset of cancer in my female relatives.
My mother’s ovarian cancer was diagnosed when she was
49. I’m 39.”
She is now taking hormone replacements to help her
maintain a hormonal balance, but said, “Regardless of the
hormone replacements I’m taking, I am now in
menopause.”
“I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect
some physical changes,” she continued. “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.”
