Angelina Jolie (37) has revealed today that she has undergone a double mastectomy.
Writing in the The New York Times, in a piece called “My Medical Choice”, Jolie said it was a preventative measure. Her doctors had estimated she had an 87% chance risk of breast cancer and 50% risk of ovarian cancer.
“Once I knew this was my reality, I decide to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much as I could. I made a decision to have a preventative mastectomy.” Jolie wrote.
Jolie lost her mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand to cancer in 2007 – when Bertrand was only 56. Having the operation was a way of reassuring Jolie’s six kids that she would not die young from cancer – as their grandmother did.
“We often speak of ‘Mommy’s mommy’. and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a ‘faulty’ gene.”
Jolie writes that her procedure started in February 2nd and the treatment (which lasted months and included breast implants) ended in April. Her fiancee Brad Pitt was by Jolie’s side the entire time.
Even though she has kept silent about her treatment until it was over, Jolie writes that she hopes her ordeal will help other women in facing a similar situation:
“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 I made,” Jolie writes. “My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 per cent to under 5 per cent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”
Oh, you’re right Kath – I meant in the US particularly (I meant to write that before… oops!) though it might stand to take more time to get through the system, even in Canada. In any case, I’m glad she was able to get treated the way she felt she needed to.
I applaud Angelina Jolie for using her very public profile to increase awareness about breast cancer, the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and the choices that women who are positive have.
Tracey, I have a very good friend whose mom died of breast cancer in her early forties, and our provincial health care paid for her to have genetic counselling and testing. She didn’t end up with the gene, luckily, but she had already met with a surgeon to discuss the risks, pros and cons of having the same surgery Angelina Jolie had – again, all covered by provincial health care. But maybe you were thinking of the average person in the US. They certainly couldn’t afford it.
As a side note
I always find it fascinating when the public changes from cruel and petty to engaged and sympathetic when someone beautiful who ‘has it all’ shows human fraility, tragedy, weakness or otherwise.
i think it was brave, un vain and bold. And very smart.
I think it’s amazing she managed to keep a lid on things for so long… this sort of thing tends to get leaked in a hurry. (Unfortunately.)
That said, I think it’s great that she could take such an initiative (and that she could afford to do it – most dull normals don’t have this kind of opportunity, or cash, or insurance that would cover such costs…) and it can’t have been an easy decision to make. I hope she remains healthy for the rest of her days, and that her big brood of kids will get to have their mum around for a long, long time. 🙂