Angelina Jolie, academy award winner, mother of six, partner to Brad Pitt, United Nations global ambassador,

and now, a recipient of a double mastectomy, though she doesn't even have cancer.

Jolie says she chose to have her breasts removed to reduce her chance of getting the disease that cost her mother her life.

Now her decision and her choice to make it public has put the spotlight on preventive surgery,

and I'm joined now by VOA health reporter Linord Moudou to talk more about it.

Linord, welcome back to the program.

- Hello, Alex, it's so good to be back.　- It's great to have you.

Now, Angelina is, of course, not just a star in the United States,

she has a following all around the world, including in Africa, which is your area of focus.

So, what does an announcement like this mean to African women?

To women in general around the world, I think it's something very, very important, because, her being such a famous person, it brings attention to breast cancer.

But in Africa, in particular, because breast cancer is very devastating on the continent.

Although it's not the same type of breast cancer—it's triple-negative breast cancer—but still, the whole issue of breast cancer is on the map.

A woman will think about it, a woman will be aware, and they will start talking about it, and talk to their doctors about it.

So I think that her coming out with that issue is a very, very important step.

And let's talk about, specifically, her discovery of this.

She had genetic testing to check to see if she had mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, right?

So, what—Tell us about that, how that testing works and what exactly she discovered that caused her to take this step.

Well, according to reports, she went to her doctors and she took a blood test, and they run through everything and they discovered that she had the mutation of the gene.

And these genes, BRC1—as you said, BRCA1—BRCA1 and BRCA2 are very critical in terms of developing breast cancer.

Women who have this mutation have an 87% chance of developing breast cancer, and 50% chance of developing ovarian cancer.

So when she saw that, I suppose and I guess according to reports, her doctors recommended that that was an option for her to prevent the condition from developing in the future.

But for other women who might get the testing and see that they also have this mutation, is this the answer for everyone?

It is not the answer for everyone.

Again, it depends on age of woman, and what the doctor will tell her, but, no it's not—a woman who has been diagnosed with this doesn't have to run and get a double mastectomy.

It depends, according to experts, it depends on each case, and...

So each woman will have to see her family history, her diet, her age, and so many other factors that come into play before deciding the right type of preventive treatment.

- All right, Linord, thank you so much, great to have you back again.　- Thank you.

- Good to see you.　- Good to be here.

Linord Moudou is VOA's TV to Africa health reporter and host of the Health Chat radio program. Again, thanks for being on.