Angelia Jolie, 39, announced that she has got her ovaries removed as a way to ovarian cancer.

The mother of six in a powerful op-ed for the New York Times wrote, "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".

Last week, Jolie underwent a laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes.

Op-ed by Jolie won huge praise from oncologists and health experts for bringing a number of sensitive issues into the public discussion. But it also raised several questions about the complex decision-making process faced by women at risk of ovarian cancer.

According to Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer at the American Cancer Society, about 21,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year, and nearly14,000 will die during the same period.

In general population, one in 80 woman will develop ovarian cancer, said Jamie Bakkum-Gamez, a gynecologic oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. the survival in such cases depends totally on when the cancer is detected.

Jolie carries a mutation of e BRCA1 gene most common in Eastern European Jews that gives her an 87% chance of developing breast cancer and a 50% chance of developing ovarian cancer, according to her article.

Also she has a long history of women in her family dying of cancer, including her mother. The actress' mother died at the age of 56 after a decade-long battle with breast cancer. Experts said that women with mutation of the BRCA2 also are at higher risk.

Wender said it is believed that less than 1% of American women carry the BRCA gene.