Urine is a mixture of water and substances that are being expelled from the body. When you’re dehydrated, your water-to-chemical ratio decreases. Your urine may have a strong stench if there isn’t enough water to dilute the chemical scent.
This scent will become more noticeable if your urine contains even a modest amount of sulfur due to dietary or other factors.
Dehydration can also cause the following symptoms:
What you can do
Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids, including water. Every day, you should consume at least eight separate eight-ounce glasses of water.
Diuretics such as coffee and alcohol should be avoided. Diuretics cause you to urinate more frequently, making dehydration more likely.
Why does my pee have such a chemical odor?
Ammonia odors can be caused by dehydration. Dehydration happens when a person does not drink enough water or loses a lot of water due to vomiting or diarrhea. When compounds in urine get concentrated due to a lack of water, ammonia odor develops.
Aside from an ammonia-like odor, bubbles in a person’s urine are another unmistakable indicator of dehydration. Dehydrated people have urine that is dark honey or brown in hue, rather than pale yellow or gold.
Urinary tract infections
Urinary tract infections, or UTIs, are the most frequent bacterial illnesses worldwide, according to study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, impacting up to 150 million people each year.
In addition, 10.5 million doctor visits and up to 3 million emergency room visits for UTI symptoms were recorded in the United States.
UTIs are more common in women and girls, but they can also affect males and boys. Bacteria infecting the urinary tract causes these infections. The bacteria cause urine to smell bad and become hazy or crimson.
What does it signify if my pee has a metallic odor?
Throughout your life, your body odor will change. This could be due to hormonal changes like puberty or other variables like your:
When you sweat, the fragrance of your sweat may convey information about your diet. If you’ve recently eaten onions or spicy meals, for example, your sweat may smell a little stronger.
However, if your perspiration has a metallic or ammonia-like odor, it could be related to something you’re not eating.
Long-distance runners and other athletes may smell a metallic stench during or after a workout because their bodies are burning protein for fuel rather than glucose.
When this occurs, the body converts ammonia to urea, which is then eliminated in the urine. However, because ammonia levels can still rise, the body excretes the harmful ammonia through sweat.
That ammonia-rich perspiration may smell like ammonia or metal, depending on the person. You may experience this after a vigorous workout if you’re on a high-protein, low-carb diet.
What is the scent of diabetic urine?
What Is the Smell of Diabetic Urine? Urine that smells sweet or fruity is an indication of diabetes or high blood sugar. Sugar in your urine causes the sweetness, which is an indication that your body is trying to get rid of excess sugar in your blood.
What does the urine of a person with a urinary tract infection smell like?
However, not every unusual urine odor can be explained only by a change in diet. According to Dr. Bajic, that foul-smelling stream can be a sign of an underlying health problem that needs to be addressed.
Consider the following example:
Pee that smells like ammonia
It could be a symptom of a urinary tract infection if you detect a trace of ammonia in your urine. Bacteria may be swimming about in your urinary system, most likely in your urethra, kidneys, or bladder, based on the stench.
Urine that shows indicators of a UTI may also be cloudy or even crimson. Peeing can also be painful, which is exacerbated by the fact that you may need to urinate more frequently. Other telltale indications include a fever and mental disorientation.
According to Dr. Bajic, UTIs are rather prevalent, with around 10 million Americans seeking antibiotic therapy each year. The infection is more common in women and the elderly.
Other probable sources of urine with an ammonia odor include:
Why does my pee have a sulphur odor?
The term “cystitis” refers to bladder inflammation. It’s usually caused by a urinary tract infection (UTI) or an imbalance of “good” and “bad” bacteria occurring naturally in the body.
When bacteria is the culprit, the bacteria will influence the urine as it sits in the bladder or flows through it. Urine with a strong sulfur odor can result as a result of this.
Other cystitis symptoms include:
- Urge to urinate frequently, even when you’ve just emptied your bladder
- urine with blood in it
- pee that is hazy or bloody
- cramping in the stomach or lower back
- discomfort during a sexual encounter
Consult your doctor if you’re suffering symptoms of cystitis. Antibiotics will be prescribed to treat the bacterial infection. To aid in the removal of the illness and to lessen the sulfur odor, drink plenty of water.
What does sulfur in pee smell like?
Why does my pee have a sulfur odor? People may remark that their urine smells like sulfur or rotten eggs on occasion. This can happen as a result of eating particular foods or taking certain medications, in which case the odor should only last a short time.
Why does my pee have an acetone odor?
However, eating isn’t the sole reason. According to Dr. Lee, “any drug that increases the sulphur content of your urine can cause urine to smell.” “Antibiotics known as sulphonamides, for example, are frequently used to treat urinary infections. Sulphur products have a rotten egg smell.
“Smelly urine is a common symptom of urinary tract infections (UTIs).” Inflammation of the bladder wall and an increase of white blood cells are caused by an overgrowth of bacteria within the bladder. If you’ve ever had a boil or an abscess, you’ll know how terrible pus smells.
“Diabetes can make your pee smell bad. To begin with, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) results in a rise in ketones in the urine. Ketones have an acetone-like pear drop scent or a nail-polish remover scent. DKA is a medical emergency that usually affects persons with Type 1 diabetes.
“High levels of glucose in the urine may cause the urine to smell sweet if diabetes is untreated or poorly controlled.”
Is your urine smelling because you have an STD?
Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection that can make your urine smell unpleasant. It can be readily healed, but often difficult to identify. This is due to the fact that its symptoms can be overlooked or misdiagnosed as a result of other illnesses. These signs and symptoms include:
This STD is transmitted via unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse. If you’ve recently had a sexual experience and are experiencing any of these symptoms, get an STD test at a FastMed Urgent Care location.
What does it smell like to have ketones in your urine?
Ketoacidosis also has the following indications and symptoms:
- Urination has increased.
- thirst that is insatiable
- breath that smells nice or “fruity”
- Perplexity and disorientation
- Kussmaul breathing, or hyperventilating, is deep, laborious breathing.
Ketoacidosis is a medical emergency, therefore anyone who feels they are suffering from it should contact 911 right once.
Ketoacidosis can be caused by a variety of factors, including hunger and persistent, excessive alcohol consumption.
Eating a lot of protein
Eating a lot of protein is another method to get into ketosis. When a person consumes a high protein diet rather than carbohydrates, their bodies turn to protein and stored fat for energy instead of carbohydrates.
As a result, the blood ketone level will rise. The urine may smell pleasant or like popcorn when these ketones exit the body in the pee.
Pregnancy
The scent of urine might alter during pregnancy for a variety of reasons, including:
- Everyday odors may smell different than usual because a person’s sense of smell changes slightly during pregnancy.
- Increased amounts of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) circulate in the blood during the early stages of pregnancy, which might cause urine to smell different or stronger.
- Gestational diabetes: According to research, roughly 1 in 13 pregnant women over the age of 20 years in the United States develops a kind of transient diabetes known as gestational diabetes. Ketoacidosis is a dangerous but uncommon complication of gestational diabetes.
Dehydration
Dehydration causes the body to excrete less water in the urine. As a result, the urine is thicker, darker, and has a greater odor than typical. If the waste products in urine have a popcorn odor, the urine may have a popcorn odor once it has been concentrated.
Other signs of dehydration, aside from strong-smelling urine, include:
decreased urination
What does urine from kidney stones smell like?
Because of the ammonia in kidney stones, the scent of urine can change. In addition to ammonia, this condition causes the urine to have extra salts, which might modify the scent to something a little different, although not necessarily foul-smelling.