Angelina Jolie Covers Time Magazine: But Will She Transform Women's Health?

Angelina Jolie's preventive double mastectomy is the biggest news story of the week, and Time speculates that it may help transform women's health. The 37-year-old actress, on the cover of the magazine's new issue, looks ethereal and pensive in a black-and-white profile shot, with the big question:

What will the "Angelina Effect" be on other women?

A little over the top? Maybe. But Time points indisputably that Angelina Jolie's decision to have elective surgery puts "genetic testing in the spotlight."

The star tested positive for the "faulty" BRCA1 gene, indicating that her likelihood for developing breast or ovarian cancer was extremely high. The influence the mom of six is also strong on everything from parenting to pop culture, so there's no doubt people will pay close attention because it's her.

However, Time also questions the "young science" of genetic screening, which prompted Jolie's surgery (and her plan to have her ovaries removed next).

"Human beings are very good at worrying - it's what keeps us alive and out of harm's way. But we're also good at over-worrying," the article states.

Often times, this can be counter-productive, and result in us "making irreversible decisions to reduce or avoid risks that don't really exist at all."

"Jolie's brave example can make us all smarter and keep us all healthier," the publication acknowledges, "But only if we take the right lessons from it."

Her fiance Brad Pitt called her heroic, and there's little doubt she is. Yet she is still only one person who represents one side of a complex issue.

What do you think the "Angelina effect" will be?