Angelina Jolie has ovaries removed over risk of contacting cancer

Oscar-winning film star Angelina Jolie said she has had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to avoid the risk of ovarian cancer, the disease that killed her mother at the age of 56.

The announcement in a New York Times column printed on Tuesday came nearly two years after the rights campaigner and mother-of-six had a double mastectomy after hearing she had also inherited a high risk of breast cancer.

Jolie, 39, said she had gone public with her decision to tell other women about the options available to them.

"I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family. I know my children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer,'" Jolie wrote.

The procedure had triggered menopause, she added. "I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes. 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."

Jolie, who also lost her aunt and grandmother to cancer, underwent the laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy last week after blood tests revealed possible indicators of early cancer.

She said doctors had told her she had a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer due to an inherited genetic mutation.

Husband Brad Pitt flew to her side from France hours after she told him about the test, she wrote. "The beautiful thing about such moments in life is that there is so much clarity. You know what you live for and what matters. It is polarize ng, and it is peaceful," she added.