I have very unpleasantly strong smelling urine, can you help?

Drink LOTS of water and if the smell continues for a few days call your urologist.

I do drink lots of water, the smell has been there for about 6 weeks. I have spoken on several occasions with my GP and tests were run only a few days ago on my urine but nothing untoward found.

Edit: The smell almost disappeared when I was taking some candida preventative medication for about 3 days. It is not something I can continue to take ongoingly, unfortunately

Are you taking supplements, or started eating some other cruciferous vegetables? It happens to me if I take a lot of vitamins or if I eat lots of broccoli or Brussels sprouts.

Any yellowing in your eyes?

If you’re drinking lots of water, I would consider having the water itself tested. Short of that, switch to bottled water, and see if things quickly improve.

Change your diet and stay hydrated?

Not sure, maybe it happens after you eat or drink something specific?

You don’t need to take constant candida preventative medication. Just some pro-biotic yoghurt should do the trick. Or you could try some over the counter cure. I don’t know if you can get it there, but here it is called Idoform. http://www.idoform.no/product/idoform-classic-plus

Stinky pee isn’t an illness. You are not ‘unwell’ or ‘diseased’. It’s just a temporary imbalance that might have been caused by a course of antibiotics or change in diet.

Get more citrus in your diet.

I have to take chlorophyll supplements and eat lots of parsley—or else I am one stinky guy—not just my urine (though urine is worst). Any chance you might have trimethylaminuria?

Trimethylaminuria, or fish odor symptom, is not just fish odor—it can make you and your urine smell like just about anything in the pee-fish-poop-gas-rotten egg transitional sequence. With trimethylaminuria, you really CAN stink up a building. When visiting a church for the first time I’d sometimes write a note for the greeter or speak to someone in charge about my condition and explain my need for space and a promise to not wish to ruin anyone else’s experience with my presence.

I wasn’t very popular in school, by the way. But lots of chlorophyll, parsley, mint, etc etc taken with water certainly helps me manage the odor chemistry that seems so specifically engineered to protect me from finding a mate.

You could need to adjust the acidity of your diet. Try drinking barley water if this is available in your country or find a recipe to make an alkaline drink.

Eating broccoli can do that, too.

Is it definitely the urine and not vaginal?

Ugh. I said broccoli, I meant asparagus.
Getting old sucks.

^^ ”—or else I am one stinky guy—” @JLeslie.
^^ ”totally unconnected with asparagus by the way.” @filmfann

Thank you everyone for your responses, some of which I have replied to individually.

It’s not asparagus, strange as it may seem to some of you, I actually enjoy the smell of asparagus pee, and this definitely ain’t that.

I have just ordered some cranberry capsules, simply because they are recommended for the bladder. Though I don’t usually suffer from urinary tract infections I thought it was worth trying. I only want to try one thing at a time so I will immediately recognise any change.

Still open to further suggestions…

@Adagio After I got a UTI last year, the doctor I saw recommended that I get 100% pure cranberry juice and take a shot of it daily as a preventative measure against UTIs. I never did, because I didn’t feel it was necessary since I’ve only had two my entire life, but I thought you might like to know. If you go that route, there won’t be any sugar added at all, and it will taste bad – which is why you drink it from a shotglass.

@DrasticDreamer It is cranberry capsules I will be taking.

@Adagio Those might work as well. I was just letting you know that the doctor I saw recommended the 100% cranberry juice over anything else. Good luck, though! :)

From this:

Detox As the accumulation of toxins can also cause the foul smell, ensure that you detoxify your system by consuming lemon water on empty stomach during mornings.

Add pasted onion and ginger to butter milk and consume it everyday. If the urinary tract is infected, this remedy may cure it. If your urine stinks in the morning, it is better to consume butter milk twice a day.

(I have no idea what pasted onion is and adding it to buttermilk with ginger does not sound appetizing to me.)

Lemon juice because….
To much citrus makes urine smell vinegary. But, if urine smells stale, or eggy, citrus is beneficial. The whole onion buttermilk thing does sound unpleasant. I wonder what there is to it, if anything.

My guess would be infection or fistula, but I think you would know something seemed wrong along those lines from other symptoms as well.

My gut tells me eat an apple and drink tea as a possible remedy, but I don’t know why I think that.

@JLeslie a fistula?.... really? I suppose the funny feeling in my fingertips is leprosy?

@cazzie Like I said I doubt it since she would have other symptoms.

@JLeslie And she’s been to the doctor and it isn’t an infection. What exactly would it be an infection of, anyway?

I have had an infection for twenty years and many doctors said it wasn’t an infection. I’m not saying hers is, it’s most likely food, but I assume she hasn’t drastically changed her diet, or she would have figured that out easily herself. She mentioned asparagus in the original Q, so she knows it can be food without anyone telling her.

@JLeslie what type of infection did you have for 20 years that doctors told you wasn’t an infection and then how did you finally get the diagnosis you required?

Unsure. One doctor who has his office at the lab cultured A. meyeri and A. israeli and another anaerobe that I don’t remember. I can’t be sure that was the cause. I had negative culture after negative culture for years from the average doctor and lab. I was very symptomatic. When I had exploratory surgery for my fertility problems the surgeon said I was a mess and had so many adhesions it looked like I had a long standing infection, but even he didn’t think my pain was from an infection. He was the one who referred me to the NY GYN who ran the lab.

I’m going out of order, but during the years, at one point I took an antibiotic for something unrelated and it was like a magic pill. This was after other antibiotics did nothing. The problem was once I stopped the magic pill the problem returned. Not enough drug with the typical dosage.

Another example is women with BV. That doesn’t culture usually. But, it’s acknowledged to be a bacterial infection.

Also consider Chlamydia used to be considered normal flora.

I’ll add, I actually had slight urgency to urinate during the worst of it. The mega antibiotics I took completely cleared that up. I also had rectal inflammation and tearing and the antibiotics significantly improved that. My GYN problems got much better for a while, but then it came back after my IVF cycle. Came back with slightly different symptoms though.

Negative culture still even when my symptoms are big time.