Angelina Jolie may remove ovaries next

Angelina Jolie may remove ovaries next

SINGAPORE - The dust has barely settled on the news of her double mastectomy. Now Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie may be going in for more surgeries, reports said.

The 37-year-old is planning to have her ovaries removed as having the BRCA1 gene means she has a 50 per cent chance of developing ovarian cancer.

According to People magazine, she is likely to have the next procedures before she turns 40, as doctors recommend having the surgery done after child-bearing age.

After the surgery, she will no longer be able to have biological children, the Daily Mail reported.

She and fiancé Brad Pitt have three biological children, Shiloh, six, and four-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, and three adopted children, Maddox, 11, Pax, nine, Zahara, eight.

Jolie's decision to remove her ovaries is likely fuelled by the fact that she lost her mother, Ms Marcheline Bertrand, to ovarian cancer.

Ms Bertrand died in January 2007, at the age of 56, after an eight-year battle with the disease.

Prior to her passing, Ms Bertrand founded a charity called Give Love Give Life which spread awareness of the condition.

Jolie revealed her decision to have the double mastectomy by writing an article in the New York Times on Tuesday.

Editorial

In the editorial piece entitled "My Medical Choice", she wrote: "My doctors estimated that I had an 87 per cent risk of breast cancer and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman.

"Only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation. Those with a defect in BRCA1 have a 65 per cent risk of getting it, on average."

Meanwhile, her surgeon, Dr Kristi Funk, has said that she was up and working with "bountiful energy" on her next film project just four days after having her double mastectomy.

Dr Funk praised the "bold" Oscar-winning actress's positive attitude as she underwent three operations.

"To a large extent, I believe recovery reflects expectation. Angelina expected to feel well, to be active," the doctor wrote in a blog entitled "A Patient's Journey: Angelina Jolie."

The main surgery was on Saturday, Feb 16, and "went smoothly", she wrote. Two days later, good news: "The pathology returned and I called Angelina to confirm our biggest hope: all of the breast tissue was benign, AFP reported.

The final operation was carried out on April 27, 10 weeks after the mastectomies, reconstructing the breasts with implants, "which went extremely well, bringing an end to her surgical journey", she said.


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