Obviously, the choice whether to take HU or not is yours, but please consider this carefully. Getting older increases the chance of developing blood clots from ET. Are you at least taking low-dose aspirin?

Are you also taking a baby aspirin daily?
That can be very helpful also.
Good Luck!

I just turned 70 but was diagnosed with ET when I was 68 a year and a half ago. But I found out the hard way. I have always been very active and in what I thought was good health until I had the stroke. A large clot had formed in my carotid artery which required surgery to remove. My platelets at the time were around 800, but between the time of my stroke and the results of my blood work and bone marrow biopsy, they continued to rise to nearly 900. I have been taking Hydroxyurea for the past year and a half, and have had very little side effects from the drug. I was lucky that the stroke did not leave me with any lasting impairments, but I do not want to chance having another….hence the drug plus a blood thinner (apixaban…Eloquis) to keep my platelets down and my blood flowing smoothly. Just to let you know, I had no symptoms that anything was amiss prior to the stroke.

I'm the same as you. I was diagnosed at 57 with platelets around 600 and put on baby aspirin only. As soon as I reached 60 I became high risk and was advised to go on HU which I declined. I did say once my platelets were up to a million I would consider it. I am now 66 and my platelets are around 950 and have the opportunity to go on low dose and see how it goes. I had breast cancer 9 years ago and had lumpectomy as I caught it early. I would still love to try and find something that naturally brings down my platelets but haven't found anything so far and I guess I'll have to go with the Hydroxyurea.