Yes, the world is all a twitter about Angelina again. This time it is because she has gone public with her prophylactic mastectomy. Yes, she electively decided to remove both of her breasts.
Why?!?
Because she has the BRCA gene.
This is not news. If you have BRCA gene, your chance of getting breast cancer is 50-80%. 
You can see my prior blogs HERE. So when you are done using the breasts for babies and breastfeeding, or when you start to near the age of when cancers pop up (late 30s on up), it is time to consider doing prophylactic breast surgery. If you are BRCA positive, ovarian cancer also goes with it- so many women remove their ovaries as well.
What is a prophylactic mastectomy? Prophylactic mastectomy is when you electively choose to remove your breast tissue before you have a breast cancer. When you do this, you lower your risk of breast cancer, because you are removing all of the breast tissue. No breast tissue= no breast cancer. (Your risk does not go to absolute zero, as you are likely leaving a few breast cells behind, but you are pretty darn close.)
I applaud Angelina.
It is a tough decision for anyone, but likely even tougher for a celebrity who has photos of her body in magazines and film. Bilateral reconstructions tend to be more aesthetic, as breasts are about symmetry. Reconstruction with implants or tissue / fat transfer are easier when you have not had radiation and chemo. When doing it prophylactically, a nipple sparing mastectomy may be possible. Regardless, they are not exactly the same as “real” breasts.
The positive? You don’t have to worry about your yearly mammogram. You don’t have to worry about ovarian cancer which tends to be silent until it has spread. Once cancer has spread, you must always worry about its return.
You may not have your original breasts, but you will be here years and years from now. That is priceless.
“She did it for her kids.”
Bravo, Angelina, Bravo.