Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie Pitt’s health views have once again gained media attention, after declaring that she “loves” being menopause.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Jolie Pitt said she has not experienced a terrible reaction being menopause at age 39, which is around a decade before the average woman enters menopause naturally. “I feel older, and I feel settled being older,” she said.

The actress underwent a surgery in March 2015 to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes to prevent ovarian cancer. Two years prior to this operation, Jolie Pitt announced that a double mastectomy had been performed on her, after testing positive for a mutation in the BRCA1 gene. According to Jolie Pitt, this gene significantly increases her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

While removing the ovaries is one way of reducing a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer, it will also cause premature menopause, which experts say come with health risks.

According to the British Menopause Society, women with premature menopause are at increased risk of developing osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, dementia, Parkinsonism and even mortality.

A study in 2014, published in BJOG, revealed that premature menopause is associated with long-term negative effects on cognitive function. The research said women with a premature menopause had a more than 40 percent increased risk of poor performance on tasks assessing verbal fluency and visual memory compared to those who experienced menopause after 50. Premature menopause was also associated with overall cognitive function, as well as 35 percent increased risk of decline in psychomotor speed, or the coordination between the brain and the muscles that brings about movement.

Jolie Pitt’s health choices have been shown to raise awareness and influence women. In September 2015, a study published in the journal Cancer said that 92.6 percent of women were educated that breast reconstruction was an option after a mastectomy. The researchers also found that there was an even greater increase in awareness on breast reconstruction and the fact that it could be done using a woman’s own fat tissue, as opposed to synthetic breast implants. According to the study, the largest increase the researchers observed was in women’s awareness that breast reconstruction can be done along with breast removal surgery.

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