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May 14th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
Angelina Jolie has revealed in a New York Times opinion piece her decision to have a preventative double mastectomy.
Actress and director Jolie, partner to Brad Pitt and mother of six, says she quietly finished three months of medical procedures on April 27.
In the piece, titled My Medical Choice, she says her mother died at the age of 56 from cancer.
Because of a “faulty” gene, doctors had told Jolie she had an 87 per cent risk of breast cancer and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.
Since having the operation, Jolie says she has reduced her risk of developing breast cancer to less than 5 per cent.
I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.
“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 … I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer,” she wrote.
The final stage of Jolie’s double mastectomy involved reconstruction of the breasts with implants.
But Jolie says she does not feel any less of a woman.
“I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity,” she wrote.
“For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have options.
“I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you through this aspect of your life, and to make your own informed choices.”
Topics:
actor,
breast-cancer,
ovarian-cancer,
united-states
First posted
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-14/angelina-jolie-new-york-times/4688934
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