Angelina Jolie has revealed she has had a preventive double mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer.

Health campaigners praised her decision to go public with the news, which she said was prompted by a desire to encourage other women to get gene-tested and to raise awareness of the options available to those at risk.

The actor has a defective gene, BRCA1, which doctors told her had increased her risk of developing breast cancer to 87%, and her risk of ovarian cancer, the disease that killed her mother at the age of 56, to 50%, she wrote in the New York Times.

The surgery, which began in February, had reduced Jolie's risk of breast cancer to less than 5%, she said.

'I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer,' she wrote. 'It is reassuring that they see nothing that makes them uncomfortable. They can see my small scars and that'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.'
The 37-year-old, who has six children – three adopted and three with Brad Pitt, who was by her side for 'every minute of the surgeries' – finished three months of medical procedures on 27 April. .