![\"Angelina](\"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/AngelinaJoliebyrocors_photostream.jpg\")
<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\nAngelina Jolie doesn’t just play a badass in the movies…<\/p>\n
Yes, she is mother to 6 children.\u00a0 Sure, she is a hardworking humanitarian and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.\u00a0 So, she can also keep somebody like Brad Pitt satisfied.<\/p>\n
But this latest move took some serious courage.<\/p>\n
Between the months of February and April of this year the actress underwent a double mastectomy in order to reduce her chances of contracting breast cancer<\/a>.\u00a0 The disease took her mother\u2019s life at the young age of 56.<\/p>\n Some women, especially those whose mother has contracted breast cancer at a younger age, may be carriers of a mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene.\u00a0 This faulty gene is linked to hereditary cancers and can significantly increase the likelihood of developing certain cancers, like breast and ovarian.<\/p>\n A mastectomy is no small deal for those who have breast cancer and have few options.\u00a0 But to voluntarily remove your breasts in the name of staying healthy would be a difficult decision, to say the least.<\/p>\n Why such an extreme measure?\u00a0 The actress says she underwent the major surgery and reconstruction so that she could be around for her children and to empower other women to get checked for the gene.<\/p>\n “I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy,” she writes. “But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don\u2019t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n My own Mom had breast cancer 7 years ago, and last year underwent treatment for lung cancer.\u00a0 I get regular mammograms and have had several “extra” procedures, due in part to our family history.\u00a0 I did consider at one point doing the BRCA gene testing, but figured with all of the mammograms I get (many years I receive two) cancer would be caught early if I were to get it.\u00a0 I am now considering doing the testing.\u00a0 Lowering your risk by 82%, in Jolie’s case, is huge.<\/p>\n