I'm nearly 70, but younger women have told me that platelets drop during pregnancy, and many have had perfectly healthy babies and uneventful pregnancies.

However, women with ET do have a higher incidence of miscarriage. I had two miscarriages at age 38. My final pregnancy at age 41 was viable, but I was given vaginal progesterone for several weeks due to bleeding.

Onset of my ET was about age 55, but researchers have discovered that the mutation can be present years or even decades before blood levels are affected. Could pre-symptomatic ET have caused my miscarriages? Unknown. And people with ET have to learn to live with a lot of unknowns.

Obstetricians, even those who specialize in high risk pregnancies, are rarely encouraging because of the ungodly high liability premiums they pay. A woman coming in with a known cancer that might pose high miscarriage and clot risks would be a liability nightmare. If that woman also had healthcare insurance that didn't adequately cover contingencies of a high risk pregnancy, she would also get discouraging info.

It's often more about the money than someone's actual health risks, sadly.