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Angelina Jolie Pitt has written a piece for The New York Times, her second in as many years, talking about her cancer journey.
This time, she describes how "Because of a genetic mutation, I have had my ovaries removed."
The column starts:
LOS ANGELES — TWO years ago I wrote about my choice to have a preventive double mastectomy. A simple blood test had revealed that I 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. I lost my mother, grandmother and aunt to cancer.
I wanted other women at risk to know about the options. I promised to follow up with any information that could be useful, including about my next preventive surgery, the removal of my ovaries and fallopian tubes.
I had been planning this for some time. It is a less complex surgery than the mastectomy, but its effects are more severe. It puts a woman into forced menopause. So I was readying myself physically and emotionally, discussing options with doctors, researching alternative medicine, and mapping my hormones for estrogen orprogesterone replacement. But I felt I still had months to make the date.
Read the rest of the moving column here.
Whatever you think of Angelina as an actress or an opinion you may have formed on her as a person, one thing is certain: she deserves kudos for highlighting the disease and the actions she took to stop its spread.
"I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes," the actress reveals in opinion piece in The New York Times.
This time, she describes how "Because of a genetic mutation, I have had my ovaries removed."
The column starts:
LOS ANGELES — TWO years ago I wrote about my choice to have a preventive double mastectomy. A simple blood test had revealed that I 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. I lost my mother, grandmother and aunt to cancer.
I wanted other women at risk to know about the options. I promised to follow up with any information that could be useful, including about my next preventive surgery, the removal of my ovaries and fallopian tubes.
I had been planning this for some time. It is a less complex surgery than the mastectomy, but its effects are more severe. It puts a woman into forced menopause. So I was readying myself physically and emotionally, discussing options with doctors, researching alternative medicine, and mapping my hormones for estrogen orprogesterone replacement. But I felt I still had months to make the date.
Read the rest of the moving column here.
Whatever you think of Angelina as an actress or an opinion you may have formed on her as a person, one thing is certain: she deserves kudos for highlighting the disease and the actions she took to stop its spread.
"I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes," the actress reveals in opinion piece in The New York Times.
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