Last year Angelina Jolie went under the knife for cancer-preventive double mastectomy. Recently she claimed to be ready for a further ovary removal. Is that kind of surgery justified? NEWS.am Medicine journalist spoke to a candidate of medical sciences, obstetrician-gynecologist Inna Persoyan over the issue.

Jolie’s mother Marcheline Bertrand and aunt Debbie Martin both died of ovarian cancer. Recently the actress went a gene screening and found out that she had inherited the so-called “cancer gene” from her mother. Approximately 80% of women with this gene can develop breast cancer and 15% of them can develop ovarian cancer. So Jolie agreed to undergo double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer. With this, as stated by herself, she wanted to keep her children with their mother.

As gynecologist Inna Persoyan explained, mastectomy is a very radical procedure and is not a recommended way of cancer prevention. As to ovary removal, it is a serious and dangerous decision, which can result in an early and severe menopause, as estrogens stop being synthesized in a moment causing a real stress for the organism.

Later on other problems may appear, such as urogenital syndrome, urinary incontinence, osteoporosis and CVDs like heart attack or stroke. «A woman may decide to have her ovaries removed to prevent cancer, but later on she may as well die of heart attack or stroke,” Inna Persoyan says.

In order to prevent the above-stated effects of ovary removal, hormone replacement therapy should follow. However, several tests (mammary and thyroid) are to be taken and, particularly, blood coagulability is to be checked beforehand.

No one else but the patient has to decide whether it is worth undergoing this kind of surgery, gynecologist Inna Persoyan says.

However, it is recommended to consult the doctor first, to weigh all the pros and cons and then make the decision. Of course, ovary removal can really help prevent ovary cancer. But still there are many other organs in the body which can hardly be removed for the sake of cancer prevention.