OK, so why was my pee brown? (MODS No medical advice sought!)

Last night I had a pee in the shower, to my surprise, my urine was brown. Disregarding the pros and cons of having a pee in the shower, what on earth could have turned my urine brown?
I’ve had no aches and pains down below, no injuries to my groin, no obscene amounts of tea, coffee or coke and since last night no further discolouration.

Note to Mods and others, I’m keeping an eye on this and I’m going to see the doctor if it returns. I even went to the loo with a little sample bottle incase it returned, but so far today, nothing. So this isn’t a medical advice post, just wondering what happened.

This might not be blood in your urine. But it likely is.

I think a visit to the doctor is in order.

Can’t gall bladder problems turn urine brown? Something to do with bile - blocked ducts, maybe? Makes the urine very dark-colored and bowel movements very light-colored.

Doesn’t sound normal.

dehydration?

Had you eaten beetroot (or anything else with a lot of deep colour) in the preceding 48 hours?

I had a suggestion of dehydration from the health centre (I already made an appointment to see the nurse in the morning, didn’t really want to hassle the doctor with a flippant appointment)

Haven’t had it since but I’ll go to the health centre regardless.

Nothing with terribly dark colours in it of note. No more tea or coffee than usual, but perhaps I take too much fluids that aren’t just a plain glass of water?

Is it possible that you mistaken and you were actually pooping in the shower?

:dubious: I’m quite sure.

Are you certain that your pee was indeed brown? Could have been a trick of the light. I only mention this because I had a similar experience once.

However, let me tell you about a prank.

My Third-year Biology professor told how he and his fellow young lab assistants once gained revenge on a rival who was known to be a “snitch”. Snitch had the habit of leaving his drinks sitting around the lab, so the other assistants put some form of red dye in his drink.

Later, they heard what was described as “a hopeless, fearful wail” coming from the mens’ room-- Snitch was peeing blood red. He hastily headed for the nearest clinic.

My professor then informed us that, had Snitch been keeping up with one of their then-current research projects, he would have known that blood coming from the stomach or bladder does not normally appear red in urine.

It appears brown.

I would have that checked soon. Like yesterday. Even if it’s intermittent, it could be a warning sign of a very, very serious problem.

Heh, sounds like the time my grandfather (as a kid) fed some tablets to a greyhound racers dogs that turned their urine blue.

Quite sure it was brown, it was quite a dark in colour.

Various liver problems, notably hepatitis, cause urine to go dark while stools turn light. Bad hemoglobin breakdown.

See a doctor pronto.

Blue? I think that blue would be an interesting color to pee.

Based on personal experience I will second this. See a doctor.

:eek:

Seriously I had brown pee syndrome as a side effect of quite nasty pneumonia. There just might be something bad going on.

Speaking from experience, I’d say it might be a kidney stone. Sometimes, I would get that urine color change without the extreme pain. Those instances are rare, but it has happened.

When my father was 40 he got a vasectomy. A routine urine test turned up blood in his urine, which ended up being from bladder cancer (which was successfully removed).

While yours is likely to be from not drinking enough water, it’s definitely not something to be ignored. Glad you’re getting it checked out. Keep us posted.

I have had brownish urine, and in my case it turned out to be chronic nephritis.

See a doctor.

I kid, I kid. I figured it was pretty clear, so no smiley.

Some general information on the condition hematuria (blood in the urine) can be found here at WebMD.