ANGELINA JOLIE HAS A DOUBLE MASTECTOMY

Brave Heart, Angelina Jolie is not only beautiful but very brave; after learning she is susceptible to breast cancer and ovarian cancer she decided to have a preventative double mastectomy.  What is a MASTECTOMY? An operation that removes all or part of the breast.




The actor has a defective gene, BRCA1, which doctors told her had increased her risk of developing breast cancer to 87%, and her risk of ovarian cancer, the disease that killed her mother at the age of 56, to 50%, she wrote in the New York Times.

The surgery, which began in February, had reduced Jolie's risk of breast cancer to less than 5%, she said.

"I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer," she wrote. "It is reassuring that they see nothing that makes them uncomfortable. They can see my small scars and that's it. Everything else is just Mommy, the same as she always was. And they know that I love them and will do anything to be with them as long as I can. On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity."

The 37-year-old, who has six children – three adopted and three with Brad Pitt, who was by her side for "every minute of the surgeries" – finished three months of medical procedures on 27 April. She said she first had "nipple delay" to maximise the chances of saving her nipples, before breast tissue removal and, nine weeks later, reconstruction.

Angelia states, 

“My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman.” 
“Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.”

 Jolie wrote: "I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer."






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