Jolie Has Ovaries Removed After Cancer Scare

We use cookies to give you the best experience. If you do nothing we'll assume that it's ok.

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.

She says having her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed was "a less complex surgery than the mastectomy, but its effects are more severe".

The operation, called laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, brings on early menopause.

"Regardless of the hormone replacements I'm taking, I am now in menopause," Jolie writes.

"I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes.

1/19

Gallery: Hollywood's Golden Couple - Pitt And Jolie

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt got married at a chateau in the south of France

UN Special Envoy Jolie accompanies Pitt to the Global Summit To End Sexual Violence In Conflict in London on 13 June 2014

]]>

Jolie and Pitt attend the BAFTA Awards at The Royal Opera House on 16 February 2014

]]>

The couple, accompanied by their children, arrive at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo in July 2013

]]>

Jolie poses with Pitt at the world premiere of World War Z in London in June 2013

]]>

"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'."

Ovarian cancer is most common in women who have been through menopause, but it can affect women at any age.

Known as the silent killer, it is notoriously difficult to detect in the early stages when it is most responsive to treatment.

Pierce Brosnan's daughter Charlotte died of the disease at the age of 41 in 2013.

Her mother, Cassandra Harris, died from the same type of cancer in 1991 while she was married to Brosnan.

Recommended by Outbrain Recommended by Outbrain

Stop Narkoba