When people think about estrogen, they usually think about how much of the hormone their body produces. But the other side of this story is how well your body processes and clears estrogen once it's been used. This process, called estrogen metabolism, is just as important as estrogen production itself. One of the body's most important tools for processing estrogen is methylation, a biochemical process supported by the MTHFR gene. MTHFR and hormones are linked.

Naturally, MTHFR and birth control pills interact. It's not like this is an easy mutation to live with in other senses; why would it leave our contraceptive options untouched? Complaining aside, I could have saved myself years of miserable experiences with the pill if I had known this when I was in University.