Angelina Jolie Says She 'Loves Being in Menopause'

By Marie Lodi  |  November 23, 2015 | 12:30am
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In March of this year, Angelina Jolie revealed she underwent surgery involving the removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes to lessen her chances of ovarian cancer. Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, passed away from the disease in 2007 and the actress wanted to be proactive about her health. The procedure forced her into early menopause, which she said she is happy about.

“I actually love being in menopause,” Jolie said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. “I haven’t had a terrible reaction to it, so I’m very fortunate.” The 40-year-old also described herself as feeling more “settled” now that she’s older. “I feel happy that I’ve grown up. I don’t want to be young again,” she said.

Jolie has been very open with the public about her health, penning two NYT op-eds, the first after she had a double mastectomy in 2013 — another preventive surgery that dropped her chances of developing breast cancer from 87 percent to under 5 percent. When she removed her ovaries and fallopian tubes, she wrote about her decision and how it would affect her family. “I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family,” she wrote at the time. “I know my children will never have to say, ‘Mom died of ovarian cancer.’”

Jolie also spoke about how her health issues have affected her relationship with her husband, Brad Pitt. “[Brad] made it very, very clear to me that what he loved and what was a woman to him was somebody who was smart, and capable, and cared about her family, that it’s not about your physical body,” she said. “So I knew through the surgeries that this wasn’t going to be something that made me feel like less of a woman, because my husband wouldn’t let that happen.”

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Image via Getty.

 
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