Bathroom breaks are a regular part of your day, and unless you notice something out of the ordinary, like a change in color or smell, you probably don’t think twice about it. When this happens, the question “Why does my pee smell?” It might make you nervous when you wonder.
Starting with urine, it doesn’t smell very good. “It happens when the kidneys filter and remove waste products from the blood,” says Stephanie Pannell, a urologist at UCLA Health. “The strength and type of odor depends on many factors, including the diet, humidity of the person’s diet, and medication.”
Urine is made up of things like ammonia, creatinine, urochrome, which is the usual yellow color in urine, urea (from amino acid metabolism) and water. It has a delicate balance between all these components, but when it’s off, when you’re dehydrated, you’ll notice a stronger scent.
“When you’re dehydrated, urinary waste products such as ammonia become more concentrated and your urine smells stronger,” explains Daniel Garvey, MD, MD, assistant professor and director of the urology residency program at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Smelly urine is not a big deal unless it is accompanied by other symptoms such as blood in the urine, burning when going to the toilet, or frequent trips to the toilet. However, it can sometimes be a symptom of diabetes, liver disease, kidney stones, kidney failure, or urinary tract infection (UTI).
