Angelina Jolie Surgery: Doctors Say The Actress Did Right Thing By Removing Female Organs [VIDEO]
Angelina Jolie did the right thing to avoid cancer.
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On Wednesday, CNN reported that the decision to remove her breasts, ovaries and fallopian tubes was the right one for Jolie to make to avoid getting cancer.
The chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, Dr. Otis Brawley, confirmed that this was the answer to her fears.
"I understand what Angelina Jolie did, and I would have done it, too," she said.
Brawley reportedly said that if he were Jolie's doctor he would have advised her to do exactly what she did because her mother, aunt and grandmother all had ovarian cancer. Her mother also had breast cancer.
Given that Jolie has the gene that causes the disease, it reportedly gives her an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer at some point in her life.
"She has one of the particularly bad breast cancer genes," Brawley said.
According to the news site, experts in cancer genetics recommend that women who are at high risk for ovarian cancer remove their ovaries as soon as they know they are done having children.
"I can't emphasize how important this is," said the director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago, Dr. Funmi Olopade.
The op-ed Jolie wrote for The New York Times quickly went viral.
"I feel deeply for women for whom this moment comes very early in life, before they have had their children. Their situation is far harder than mine. I inquired and found out that there are options for women to remove their fallopian tubes but keep their ovaries, and so retain the ability to bear children and not go into menopause. I hope they can be aware of that," the actress wrote.
