U.S. comedian Wanda Sykes has revealed on the Ellen DeGeneres show that she had a double mastectomy for cancer.

"I had breast cancer," said Sykes. "Yeah, I know it's scary."

Wanda found out that she had cancer when she had a cosmetic procedure for breast reduction.

"This was in February. I went for the reduction. I had real big boobs and I just got tired of knocking over stuff. Every time I eat ... Oh Lord. I'd carry a Tide stick everywhere I go," she said.

She felt that her back was aching too much that it was time for her to have a breast reduction.

"It wasn't until after the reduction that in the lab work, the pathology that they found that I had DCIS [ductal carcinoma in situ] in my left breast," says Sykes.

"I was very, very lucky because DCIS is basically stage-zero cancer. So I was very lucky."

Sykes said her mother's family has a history of breast cancer.

At first, naturally, she was scared.

"But cancer is cancer. I had the choice of; you can go back every three months and get it checked. Have a mammogram, MRI every three months just to see what it's doing. But I'm not good at keeping on top of stuff. I'm sure I'm overdue for an oil change and a teeth cleaning already," Sykes said.

Her situation made her decide to have a bilateral mastectomy. "I had both breasts removed ... because now I have zero chance of having breast cancer."

At first, she was hesitant to talk about her illness.

"I was like, I don't know, should I talk about it or what? How many things could I have? I'm Black, then lesbian. I can't be the poster child for everything."

Bilateral Mastectomy: A Very Difficult Decision For Women

Bilateral mastectomy is the process of removing both breasts from women diagnosed with or at high risk of developing breast cancer. This type of surgery is more often preventive rather than curative.

A difficult decision, but it decreases the risk for up to 99 percent compared with other procedures that can minimize the risk only by half.