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"   The notoriously private Angelina Jolie shocked America this morning when a New York Times op-ed penned by the Oscar-winning actress ran this morning: In it, Jolie details her recent preventative double mastectomy in order to educate other women on the procedure. After Jolie&amp;#039;s mother died at age 56 from ovarian cancer, the actress discovered that she had BRCA1, a hereditary gene in women that makes them highly susceptible to cancer. And after undergoing a battalion of tests, Jolie was told that she ran an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. Jolie writes: I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. 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&amp;#039;t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer. It is reassuring that they see nothing that makes them uncomfortable. They can see my small scars and that&amp;#039;s it. Everything else is just Mommy, the same as she always was. And they know that I love them and will do anything to be with them as long as I can. On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity. While the $3,000 test for BRCA1, she acknowledges, is tough for some women to swing, Jolie urges them to do what they can and take any measures necessary to protect themselves from cancer, even if society frowns on it.  Last year, Miss America contestant Allyn Rose was diagnosed with BRCA1 and announced that she would be undergoing the procedure. She told the  AP that she got a lot of push-back from friends and family members: &amp;quot;You have people who say, &amp;#039;Don&amp;#039;t have the surgery. This is mutilating your body. You don&amp;#039;t have cancer.&amp;#039;&amp;quot;  Because the test is preventative, certain doctors place the women who request it at such a low priority level they they have to proactively push for it. Hopefully, Angelina will change all that. Follow Anna on Twitter. Image via Getty "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/news/a12851/angelina-jolie-double-mastectomy/>