Angelina Jolie reveals she had preventative double mastectomy
Los Angeles - Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie has undergone a double mastectomy in a preventive surgery against breast cancer, she wrote Tuesday in the New York Times.
Jolie, 37, wrote that she decided to have the operation after learning that she had a "faulty" gene, BRCA1, which "sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer."
"My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 per cent to under 5 per cent," Jolie wrote. "I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."
Jolie said she completed three months of procedures at the end of April, and decided to go public "because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience."
The celebrity mother of six thanked her partner, Brad Pitt, for his love and support throughout the ordeal, and said she was reassured that her children had found nothing in the results "that makes them uncomfortable."
"I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made," she wrote.
"I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity."//DPA
