When Marcheline Bertrand died from cancer, she had been battling it for many years. Her mother had died young as well, and Angelina Jolie realized she was very much at risk herself. In 2013, she penned an article for The New York Times in which she described her decision behind getting a preventative double mastectomy. "I carry a 'faulty' gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. My doctors estimated that I had an 87% risk of breast cancer and a 50% risk of ovarian cancer," Jolie wrote.
She wanted to be proactive and decided to undergo the surgery, which included several procedures that spanned three months. Jolie managed to keep the procedures under wraps but said that she wanted to write the article in hopes that other women benefit from her experience. Following her double mastectomy, she said: "My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87% to under 5%. I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."
In 2015, Jolie wrote another piece for The New York Times detailing the preventative procedure she underwent, removing her ovaries and fallopian tubes. Having had success with this surgery, she wrote: "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.'"
