Yahoo Lifestyle Angelina Jolie On Having Her Ovaries Removed And Going Into Menopause
When Angelina Jolie had a mastectomy two years ago, she knew there would come a day she'd also have to have her ovaries removed.
In the months that followed, the actress planned to follow up about her preventative surgery - but that day arrived much sooner than she'd planned, as she explains in an op-ed for the New York Times.
"I had been planning this for some time," Jolie wrote. "It is a less complex surgery than the mastectomy, but its effects are more severe. It puts a woman into forced menopause. So I was readying myself physically and emotionally, discussing options with doctors, researching alternative medicine, and mapping my hormones for estrogen or progesterone replacement. But I felt I still had months to make the date.
"Then two weeks ago I got a call from my doctor with blood-test results. 'Your CA-125 is normal,' he said. I breathed a sigh of relief. But that wasn't all. He went on. 'There are a number of inflammatory markers that are elevated, and taken together they could be a sign of early cancer.' I took a pause. 'CA-125 has a 50 to 75 percent chance of missing ovarian cancer at early stages,' he said. He wanted me to see the surgeon immediately to check my ovaries."
Jolie says she then went through what she imagines thousands of other women have - she told herself to be calm, that there was no reason to think she wouldn't live to see her children grow up and to meet her grandchildren.
"I called my husband in France, who was on a plane within hours," wrote Jolie. "The beautiful thing about such moments in life is that there is so much clarity. You know what you live for and what matters. It is polarizing, and it is peaceful."
Although Jolie's scans were mostly clear, she made the split decision to have her ovaries removed - which, she hedges, is not the right choice for every woman, but was certainly the correct one for her.
"My doctors indicated I should have preventive surgery about a decade before the earliest onset of cancer in my female relatives. My mother's ovarian cancer was diagnosed when she was 49. I'm 39."
Jolie, who is now experiencing the early stages of menopause, says she doesn't regret her decision.
"I am now in menopause. I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes. But I feel at ease with whatever will come, not because I am strong but because this is a part of life. It is nothing to be feared."
You can read the entire op-ed here.
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