Angelina Jolie now planning to remove ovaries

Angelina Jolie is now planning to have her ovaries removed, following a double mastectomy after discovering she's a carrier of the BRCA1 gene.

The 37-year-old actress made the brave decision to have three months of secret procedures after being told she had an 87% chance of contracting breast cancer.

And now, Angelina is said to already be planning her next surgery - the removal of both her ovaries - as the gene means she has a 50% chance of developing ovarian cancer.

According to People magazine, Angelina is likely to have the next procedures before she turns 40, as doctors recommend having the surgery done after child-bearing age.

After the surgery, Angelina will no longer be able to have biological children, although she still has the option to adopt.

She and fiancé Brad Pitt currently have three biological children, Shiloh, six, and four-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, and three adopted children, Maddox, 11, Pax, nine, Zahara, eight.

The View host Barbara Walters revealed on the show on Tuesday that she had both of her ovaries removed after her sister died from ovarian cancer.

She explained: 'It's not like having the breasts removed because people don't see it. But it's a decision you have to make - it's preventative.'

And Angelina's decision to remove her ovaries will likely be fuelled by the fact that she lost her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to ovarian cancer at the age of 56.

Bertrand died in January 2007 after an eight-year battle with the disease.

Prior to her passing, Bertrand founded a charity called Give Love Give Life which spread awareness of the condition.

She and her colleagues at the charity also successfully campaigned for Johanna's Law to fund education into gynecological illnesses and got it signed into statute in the US.

Angelina revealed her decision to have the double mastectomy by writing an op ed in the New York Times on Tuesday.

In the editorial piece entitled 'My Medical Choice', Angelina wrote: 'My doctors estimated that I had an 87% risk of breast cancer and a 50% risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman.

'Only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation. Those with a defect in BRCA1 have a 65% risk of getting it, on average.

'Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.

'I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex.

'On April 27, I finished the three months of medical procedures that the mastectomies involved. During that time I have been able to keep this private and to carry on with my work.

'My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87% to under 5%. I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.'