Oscar-winning film star Angelina Jolie has said she has had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to avoid the risk of ovarian cancer, the disease that killed her mother at the age of 56.
The announcement in a New York Times column printed on Tuesday came two years after the rights campaigner and mother-of-six had a double mastectomy after hearing she had also inherited a high risk of breast cancer.
Jolie, 39, said she had gone public with her decision to help “other women at risk to know about the options”.
“I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family. I know my children will never have to say, ‘Mom died of ovarian cancer,’” Jolie wrote.
Jolie, who is raising her family with fellow film star and husband Brad Pitt, underwent the laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy last week.
She said doctors had told her she had a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer due to an inherited genetic mutation.
The actress, who won an Oscar as best supporting actress for her 1999 role in the film “Girl, Interrupted,” based her earlier decision to undergo a double mastectomy on news that she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer.
She revealed that decision in a New York Times op-ed in May 2013 and was widely lauded by celebrities, cancer survivors and medical professionals for her openness, with many saying she was an inspiration for other women.