You went to the washroom and noticed your urine had started to smell like bacon out of nowhere. This can be really upsetting for you and we understand that.
So for what reasons exactly your urine smells like bacon?
Bacon smelling urine is probably due to a bacterial Infection in your urinary tract. It could also be due to dehydration or eating a large portion of pork recently. Certain food items and medications also can play a role in your smelly urine.
We know that did not answer your questions very elaborately. But don’t you worry! Because here is a complete guide for you with 5 probable causes, remedies and tips to avoid bacon smelling urine. So get on board!
Table of Content
Eww! This Urine Smells!
Our urine is supposed to smell a little even without any medical conditions. Like for normal people, urine should smell a little bit alkaline. This smell is controlled by the ammonia present in the urine.
But things get a little harder when your urine starts to smell funky. You may start to notice that your urine smells less ammonia-ish and more some other odors. Now that surely becomes a concern.
Some common but unusual urine odors are popcorn like smell, bacon or ham like smell, even a sweet sugary smell.
But bacon smelling urine is the most common one and people frequently complain about it. If your urine is indeed smelling like bacon, you should not worry too much or feel embarrassed about it.
We all go through that phase where we get smelly urine. And the good thing is, it is not anything permanent. The bacon smell will go away once you find the cause behind it and treat it well.
Should You Be Worried for the Smell?
Let us be frank here. If your urine smells like bacon, there is nothing to fret about too much. It is not a sign of regular urine but it is not anything life threatening either.
That is unless your bacon or ham smelling pee is associated with pain during urination, fever, urgent frequency or burning sensation.
If you have any of the above mentioned symptoms along with a bacon smelling pee, it might be bad news.
This is the concoction for a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). But even then, we got you covered. Because UTI goes away completely if you remember to take your medicines regularly.
So cheer up, folks! Smelly urine is nothing to be crying over at all. You just need to get your urine tested to see what actually went wrong.
Reasons Why Your Urine Smells Like Bacon
There are plenty of reasons why your pee could start smelling like smoked bacon or ham. Here is a list of the possible causes for it. Go through them to check which one ticks your box!
Dehydration
This is one of the prime causes why your urine might smell like meat. Your daily water requirement is at least 2 litres.
If you are having any less than that, your body concentrates your urine. It is done to save up the limited water in the blood.
And concentrated urine means less water and more toxic particles and wastage. These excessive waste products break down into more ammonia than usual along with nitrates.
This excessive ammonia, nitrates and sometimes sulfur causes your urine to smell like bacon.
If the bacon smell came from dehydration, then you will also notice a change in the color. The normal straw colored urine becomes a dark yellow one.
What Should You Do?
Start drinking plenty of water immediately. Try to drink at least 10 glasses of water everyday. And this does not include beverages like tea, coffee, beer or fruit juice.
If you are used to drinking coffee, tea or any alcoholic beverages, increase your water intake a bit more. Because these are all diuretics and they cause you to pee more than usual. So there is a good chance they will leave you more dehydrated than you were at the start.
After you have started drinking enough water, your urine will start to smell normal again. Even the color would correct itself. You do not need to see a doctor for being dehydrated.
Diet
Well, the most obvious cause for having a bacon smelling urine would be – surprise! eating loads of bacon!
If for some reason you have been eating meat in more than normal portions lately, this could result in the smelly urine.
Ask yourself if you have made a sudden change in your dietary habits lately. Different food items are made of different complex particles. And when they break down, they can cause your urine to smell.
Other than bacon and pork, some other food items that can contribute to your smelly urine are eggs, coffee, generally any kind of meat or protein rich food.
What Should You Do?
Well, start with limiting your protein intake. If you think you are consuming too much meat, replace some of it with some greens.
And also try drinking loads of water. This water will dilute your urine and subsequently, the concentration of smelly chemicals will die down. Just like that, water helps in reducing the bad odor significantly.
Side Effect of Medicines
There are certain medications and vitamin supplements that might change the odor of your urine remarkably.
Sulfonamide, a group of antibiotics, contains a form of sulfur in it. They release the reduced sulfur in your urine after they are metabolized. Sulfur makes your urine smell really bad.
Some vitamin supplements might contribute here as well. Vitamin B1 (thiamin) and B6 (pyridoxine) are particularly responsible for generating a bad smell in urine.
Apart from that, if you are diabetic and receiving medications for it, your urine can smell funny too. It is a common side effect of antidiabetic drugs.
What Should You Do?
It is the same remedy mentioned for other causes. Start drinking even more water than you are doing right now. This will increase the water volume in your urine and the bad smell will die down after some time.
But if you do not see an improvement after a week, try contacting your health care provider to check what is going on.
Certain Food Items
There are bunch of food items that can cause an unwanted smell in your urine. Some vegetables that contain high fiber can do this to you.
And veggies like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and asparagus contain sulfur in them. This sulfur is excreted through your urine. So if these veggies make up a bigger portion of your diet, your urine might start smelling bad.
In addition to that, there are certain food items like alcohol, seafood, spices and herbs (garlic and onion) which can make your pee smell like bacon.
What Should You Do?
Yes, you guessed right. Increase your water intake. It will even out the smell caused by these food items.
Also you can partially cut off these food items from your diet. That will help in getting back to normal smell.
Diseases and Infections
Bacon smelling urine can be a symptom for some underlying health problems. As I have mentioned before, if you are experiencing other symptoms like fever, pain and burning during micturition then it is kind of bad news.
That bad news is just some regular diseases. Nothing too uncommon or serious so people do not bother too much with them. Here are some health issues that might be the reason for your bacon smelling urine.
- Urinary tract infections
- Uncontrolled diabetes mellitus
- Kidney stones
- Sexually transmitted infections
- Liver diseases
- Bladder fistula
- Genetic problems
Among all these, the first four are seen more than the others in patients. And even then, nothing comes close to the number of people suffering from UTI who have bacon smelling urine.
What Should You Do?
If you are diabetic or a kidney patient, you are probably under treatment already. If you are having symptoms on top of existing health issues, we advise you to go check with your doctor as soon as possible.
Or maybe you do not happen to be a chronic disease patient but just suddenly developed these symptoms. The symptoms being bacon smelling urine, pain, burning sensation while urinating and fever. The chances are you developed an infection.
In both cases, I’d suggest you talk to your consultant first. They will help you take a urine test and possibly a urine culture to diagnose and confirm the causative agent.
There are a whole lot of bacterias responsible for UTI. So it would be beneficial to do a urine test as soon as you can.
Urine test or a Kidney function test is a pretty easy one. You just have to go to your appointment and pee in a container. Your doctor and the analyst will do the rest.
Once the results are out, your health care provider would prescribe you some selective antibiotics. You have to take them as per the prescription and voila! you are good to go within a few weeks.
Things You Need to Avoid
Just like taking the remedies, there are certain things you should refrain from doing. Because doing them might make the situation worse for you. Smelly urine itself is not very serious, but it can easily get much more complicated.
We have come up with a list of Don’ts just for you! Here it is.
Don’t Hold Your Urine
We advise you not to hold your urine for too long for whatever reason you may try doing it. It is a very unhealthy practice and does you no good.
Moreover, holding urine inside the bladder can potentiate the risk of infections, kidney diseases and smelly urine.
So go visit the bathroom whenever nature calls for you!
Avoid Too Much of These Foods
Like we have mentioned already, foods like onion, garlic, asparagus, broccoli cause funky smell in urine. If you have problems with your urine or kidney, try not having too much of these foods.
We know some of you might actually like taking these and want include in your daily diet. I am still gonna advise you to take it easy until your problems solve out.
Reducing these specific items will mean less sulfur in your urine. And less sulfur means less smell for you!
Avoid Diuretics
Diuretics are those drinks that make you urinate frequently. Some common diuretics we take several times a day are coffee, tea, alcoholic beverages and sugary, carbonated fizzy drinks.
They will make you urinate quite a few times a day and you can not even help it! Say you are in a setup where visiting washrooms frequently is a bother. So you compensate by cutting on your daily water intake.
Do not do that! Instead cut off on these drinks so you urinate less frequently.
Be Careful of Your B!
This too was mentioned before. Vitamin B1 and B6 namely Thiamine and Pyridoxine are responsible for smelly urine. They can make your pee smell like rotten meat, I’m not even kidding. And that could be really unpleasant to your nose.
We know vitamin supplements are very essential for your health and emphasize on taking them if you are not already. But if you are suffering from bacon smelling urine, you could try limiting your Vitamin B complex intake.
Consult with your doctor to plan out how much of these should you take to make your urine smell normal again.
Can It Be a Sign For Pregnancy?
You might be wondering if the bacon smell in your urine indicates pregnancy or not. The general answer to that is – No. Bacon smelling urine does not normally mean that you are pregnant.
To actually see if you are pregnant or not, you can try a pretty simple and easy pregnancy test by yourself. You just need a pregnancy test kit for it! The instructions are already written there in easy words. You just need to see if the results are positive or negative.
Although bacon smell does not indicate pregnancy, pregnant women might experience bacon smell in their urine. The reasons behind that are the same as non pregnant people.
The only difference is developing an UTI during pregnancy could be pretty bothersome for the would be moms. They already have to urinate frequently due to their pregnant uterus. Now imagine having an UTI and going more often? Literally no one wants that!
When to See Your Doctor?
Smelly urine, be it bacon, fish, popcorn whatever, is not a serious symptom by itself. But if it comes with other symptoms, it might point to some bacterial growth in the bladder.
So if you are only having the smell, try drinking lots and lots of water. But if you feel like you are having problems while urinating, or have risk factors like kidney disease, kidney stones or diabetes, you should go give your doctor a visit.
But do not panic too much, all your problems will get easily resolved if you stick to your treatment regimen.
FAQs
Question : What does it mean if your urine smells like meat?
Answer : Trimethylaminuria is a disorder in which your body is unable to break down trimethylamine, a chemical composition which has a pungent smell. Trimethylamine has been described as smelling like rotting fish, rotting eggs, garbage and urine.
Question : What does diabetic urine smell like?
Answer : If you have diabetes, you may notice your urine smells sweet or fruity. This is because your body is trying to get rid of the excess blood sugar that occurs due to diabetes. Your kidneys dispose the glucose through your urine.
Question : Why can I smell myself through my pants?
Answer : Common causes could be Chlamydia Infections as well as injuries to your urethra, like a catheter trauma. The extra presence of bacteria there can cause the unpleasant smell. This condition is usually treated with antibiotics like Doxycycline.
Ending Notes
It could be pretty embarrassing for you in public lavatories if your urine smells like bacon. So if you have not already developed the habit of drinking plenty of water, do it right now!
Drinking a good amount of water will not only relieve you from any unwanted smell in the urine but also get you a clear skin. So what are you waiting for?
Hope this discussion could answer all your queries about your bacon smelling urine. Do not forget to wear a mask while you go out and take care!
