'I hope that other women can benefit from my experience,' Angelina Jolie wrote in a powerful op-ed article Tuesday, explaining her decision to go public with having her breasts removed to avoid cancer.
But amid the accolades for the film star's courageous revelation, doctors and genetic counselors were careful to note that her medical situation -- an inherited genetic mutation putting her at high risk of breast and ovarian cancer -- was very specific, and that her course of action made sense for only a small category of women.
Still, they hailed her bravery and said that she would surely help increase awareness -- and thus, perhaps, help save some lives.
'Having this conversation empowers us all,' said Rebecca Nagy, a genetic counselor who works frequently with women who test positive for a defective version of the BRCA1 gene, as Jolie did. 'It's wonderful what she's done.'
In a stunning op-ed piece in the New York Times, Jolie, 37, began by speaking of her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died of cancer at 56, before she was able to meet most of her grandchildren.
The actress revealed that beginning in February, she underwent three surgeries -- which she succeeded in keeping secret from the public -- in which her breasts were removed, and later replaced by implants.
'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.