Angelina Jolie, a touching story

Angelina Jolie

“My mother battled with cancer for almost a decade and died at the age of 56”, with that phrase the American actress started the article entitled ‘My medical choice’ published in the newspaper The New York Times in which she recounts that it was not an easy decision to have performed a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer.

“My chances of developing breast cancer fell from 87% to less than 5%. I can tell to my children that they should not be afraid to lose me from breast cancer,”wrote Jolie, and added,”personally I do not feel less of a woman. I feel stronger and I have taken an important decision that does not diminish my femininity at all”

In the article, the winner of the Oscar explains that after discovering that she is carrier of BRCA1, a gene that increases her chances of developing the disease, she was subjected to three months of surgical procedures to remove her breasts, and that the medical process started with the Nipple Delay, a plastic surgery technique that prevents the effects of mastectomy from damaging aesthetically the nipple.

“Having witnessed Angie’s decision, as of many others (women) it is quite heroic, all I want is for her to have a long and healthy life with me and our children”, added her husband Brad Pitt, who according to the story, accompanied her “every minute of the surgeries”.

“If I now write about this it’s because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience… Life is full of challenges. The ones that should not give us fear are the ones we can face and we can control,”said Jolie to conclude her article.

The Ecuadorian surgeon Mauricio Riofrío, indicates that the subcutaneous mastectomy is performed in a cancer-free women who carries the gene BRCA1 or BRCA2, and explains that during this intervention, all the glandular breast tissue is removed while preserving the skin, areola and nipple.