Angelina Jolie has now entered menopause, as she removed her ovaries and also under went a double mastectomy

Two years after Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy to prevent the onset of breast cancer, the actress has revealed that she has since had her ovaries removed due to a second health scare. 

The 39-year-old Maleficent star published a lengthy opinion piece, titled Angelina Jolie Pitt: Diary Of A Surgery in the New York Times on Monday explaining her decision.

With her ovaries and Fallopian tubes now gone, the mother-of-six has entered early menopause and will not be able to have any more children, she writes in her candid, deeply personal essay.

In May 2013, Brad Pitt's wife famously had her breasts surgically removed after she found out she was carrying a genetic mutation that greatly increased her risk of potentially fatal breast cancer.

In the piece, Jolie explains that the mutation in the BRCA1 gene gave her an estimated 87 per cent risk of breast cancer and 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.

Her mother Marcheline Bertrand died in January 2007 at the age of 56 after an eight-year battle with ovarian cancer. She also lost her grandmother to cancer.

Jolie has previously spoken of the void in her life that her mother's death had left - a pain that led her to taking the brave decision to have a double mastectomy, so her children may not have to experience the pain she did.

Brad, Jolie and their children