Adding more stress into the mix. Angelina Jolie dealt with the side effects of undergoing a surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes just 18 months before her split from husband Brad Pitt. In March 2015, the Maleficent actress, 41, decided to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed after discovering that she had signs of early ovarian cancer.
“I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt,” the mom-of-six wrote in an op-ed piece for The New York Times at the time. “I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn’t live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren.”
(Jolie was diagnosed with the BRCA1 gene in 2013, at which time she underwent a double mastectomy. Her mother, the late Marcheline Bertrand, died at the age of 56 after battling ovarian cancer for eight years.)
The actress and humanitarian’s decision to undergo the major surgery in 2015 undoubtedly had some serious health consequences, Beverly Hills-based Ob-Gyn Rebecca Nelken told Us Weekly.
“All of the things that go along with menopause — hot flashes, insomnia, possible mood changes … [and] it puts you at risk for osteoporosis and heart disease,” Nelken said of the physical changes that could impact a patient. “If a woman has her ovaries removed in her forties, all of those symptoms are going to hit all at once — and often pretty severely.”
Women typically experience menopause around age 51.
“I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes,” wrote Jolie, who has three biological children (Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8) an three adopted children (Maddox, 15, Pax, 12 and Zahara, 11) with Pitt. “But I feel at ease with whatever will come, not because I am strong but because this is a part of life. It is nothing to be feared.”
As previously reported, Jolie filed for divorce from her husband of two years (and partner of 12), Pitt, 52, on Monday, September 19. At present, the pair have reached an agreement on a parenting plan wherein she has sole physical custody of their six children, though they both share legal custody.
For much more on Pitt and Jolie, pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now.