Angelina Jolie has ovaries removed: Hollywood actress reveals preventative Oophorectomy

In May 2013 Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy to minimise the risk of developing breast cancer. And now the Hollywood actress has revealed that has also had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to prevent the onset of ovarian cancer.

The 39-year-old Maleficent star opened up about her brave decision in an opinion piece, titled Angelina Jolie Pitt: Diary Of A Surgery, published in the New York Times.

Discussing her health scare Brad Pitt's wife notes that doctors told her that a mutation in the BRCA1 gene gave her an estimated 87 per cent risk of breast cancer and 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.

"I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt," the actress and humanitarian ambassador writes.

"I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn't live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren."

Earlier in March, Jolie went under the knife to undergo what is known as a laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. As a result of her bold move the mother-of-seven will no longer be able to bare any more children.

Women with the BRCA1 gene are sometimes advised to have their ovaries removed as well as their breasts. Cancer Research says that two in three women who have either the BRCA1 or 2 gene will get ovarian cancer by the age of 75.

"Regardless of the hormone replacements I'm taking, I am now in menopause,' she writes. '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."

Jolie previously revealed that her decision to have both breasts removed was spearheaded by her desire to want to watch her children grow up. Her own mother died from at 56 after losing her battle with ovarian cancer.

"I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy," she said, at the time. "But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87% to under five %. I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."