The headaches would subside immediately with no aftereffects so I knew it wasn't anything more than the HU. Prior to starting this medication, I was getting serious migraine headaches every two months like clockwork. I'd had migraines occasionally but they had pretty much stopped once I hit menopause 16 years ago. I was concerned about taking HU since it is a chemotherapy drug, but my platelets are in the 190s now (down from 792) and I am having no side effects. We all react differently and all medication has side effects that some of us will have and some of us won't. To me, the risk of side effects was preferred to the high risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke due to ET.