Actress Angelina Jolie has had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed as a preventative measure against cancer, the BBC reports.
Writing in the New York Times, Jolie said she chose to have the surgery as she carries a gene that gave her a 50% risk of developing ovarian cancer.
Two years ago, Jolie, whose mother died from cancer, had a double mastectomy.
“It is not easy to make these decisions,” she said. “But it is possible to take control and tackle head-on any health issue.”
In the article, titled Angelina Jolie Pitt: Diary of a Surgery, she wrote about the procedure, saying: “It is a less complex surgery than the mastectomy, but its effects are more severe. It puts a woman into forced menopause.”
Jolie, who is also a director and UN envoy, will now take hormone replacements.
She elected to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed after a check-up which put her in the clear from showing the early stages of ovarian cancer, but showed she still at risk of developing the disease which also killed her grandmother and aunt.
“My doctors indicated I should have preventive surgery about a decade before the earliest onset of cancer in my female relatives,” wrote Jolie.
“My mother’s ovarian cancer was diagnosed when she was 49. I’m 39.”
Jolie, who is married to actor Brad Pitt, has six children, three of whom are adopted.
