Let's Talk About Pee...Plus Everything You Need To Know About Urination

Draining the main vein, sprinkle your tinkle, going to talk to a man about a horse, taking a whiz, breaking the seal, or going number one...it doesn't matter how you say it, this article is all about pee. 

The thing is that we all pee. Everyone. All of us. We do it multiple times a day, but do we ever stop to think about it? Nope. So, I thought I would lay it all out for you. Why? Because you might be curious. Because useless knowledge about gross topics is always handy to have if there is ever a lull in a conversation. Because when it comes to strange topics like pee, we are all oddly fascinated. 

So here is everything you need, want, or don't want to know about urine.

1. Urine Therapy

In parts of the world, such as Germany, people drink their urine. The idea is that your body doesn't absorb all of the nutrients that you consume, but rather pees out the extra. Rather than letting those nutrients get flushed away, you catch the pee and drink it to make sure that you absorb all the nutrients you've consumed. The urine should be morning urine and caught midstream. Also, the people drinking their urine should be avoiding salty foods and drinking a lot of water. 

2. How big is your stream?

Women's urine streams are typically wider than men's. Apparently, having sex and giving birth also widens the stream. 

3. The red sea

Beeturia is what can happen if you eat beets. Basically your urine comes out red or pink and contains betanin. 

4. How does it all work?

Basically, urine is created in the kidneys from what is left over as it processes and filters everything that passes through. After that, it passes to the urinary bladder by the ureters. Once the bladder is full enough, you'll feel that urge or pressure. The pee then exits through the urethra. 

5. Gee I Pee Funny Colors

Does anyone remember that trick from when you were younger? You would tell your friend to spell pig backwards and then say funny colors, and then giggle when they said, "Gee, I pee funny colors"...we're just so clever. Well, as it turns out, your urine color can actually tell you a lot about your body. Here is a chart, from the Cleveland Clinic, to help you see what your colors are telling you:

6. What's that funky smell?

So, your whiz is letting off a strong odor. Well, there could be a number of reasons for this strange smell. The first thing to determine is if it was something you ate. Asparagus, onions, garlic, and even coffee are known to let off a stench when passed through your kidneys and into your golden stream. Although some people cannot detect the odor, asparagus smell in your pee is a pretty obvious smell, so if you smell it, you'll probably know what it's from. If you eliminate the food source and wait 12 hours, the smell should be gone if it was from a food source. 

7. It's still smelling...now what?

So you've eliminated food as the source of the smell, but the funky smell is still wafting from the toilet when you go #1. It could be dehydration. If the strong scent is also accompanied by a dark yellow or orange, you should drink water now. Hydrating should fix it, if this was the cause, but if your dehydration is coupled with confusion, weakness, or fatigue, you should seek medical attention right away. If your strong smell is also accompanied by a burning sensation, it could be a UTI. If you've eliminated dehydration and diet as possible causes and the smell persists, you should get it checked out by a medical professional as it could be a symptom of a heath issue. 

8. Sickly sweet

While we're on the subject of pee smells, if your golden showers are frequently smelling sweet it could be a sign of diabetes. Contact your doctor to get yourself checked out.

9. "I laughed so hard, I peed a little"

Every comedian would take that as a praise, but bladder control issues are actually a common health problem, especially for women. Although it's more of an issue the older you get, women of all ages (and men too, but women are more likely) can experience urine leakage from exercise, laughing, coughing, or sneezing. 

10. Well...that's awkward

Temporary Incontinence - Illness, UTIs or new medication can cause you to have sudden and frequent urination that you cannot control. This will go away when the issue that caused it is eliminated.
Stress Incontinence - This isn't mental stress. It's when your pelvic muscles are not strong enough to handle the pressures from coughing, sneezing, exercise, or laughing and cause you to leak a little. 
Urge Incontinence - You get a strong and sudden urge to pee and leak from it. This could be caused from diabetes, stroke, infections, or other medical issues. 
Mixed Incontinence - When you, unfortunately, experience both stress and urge incontinence. 
Functional Incontinence - Due to mobility issues you can't make it to the bathroom in time. 
Overactive Bladder - If you have to pee more than 8-10 times a day, and/or have to get up in the middle of the night more than two times to pee, you have an overactive bladder. It often feels like a strong and sudden urge to pee. 

Temporary IncontinenceThere are a number of bladder incontinence issues that people can experience. The likelihood of experiencing these increases with age, weight, menopause, and giving birth. While it can feel awkward, it's actually a problem that is more common than you'd think. Here are the six types:

11. "Dude...I can't do it when you're watching me"

If you get bathroom stage fright, or have a shy bladder, you're not alone! It's called Paruresis and is actually a phobia that causes you to have urinary retention (which basically means you're unable to "go"). The retention is actually not a physical blockage. Anywhere from 1-25% of Americans suffer from this. If you're finding it as a high-anxiety issue and is interfering with your life, you can consult a doctor to discuss options. 

12. Niagara Falls

So how much pee do you actually hold in there? A healthy adult bladder holds around 16 ounces (or 2 cups) of urine. 

13. Ouch!

If you experience pain, discomfort, or burning when you're relieving yourself, you should talk to a doctor. This could be a sign of an infection, an STI, or other health issues. The pain could be right where the urine exits, inside behind the pubic bone, in the bladder, or in the prostate. 

14. Blame it on the bump

If you're preggers, or have been, then you know that pregnancy affects your poor bladder. The pregnancy hormone hCG increases the blood flow to your kidneys and pelvic area, causing more frequent bathroom trips (and better filtered waste, which is a good thing for your little one). Your uterus is also putting pressure on your bladder, which gives it less room to store your pee. Lastly, when you're in your last trimester and your baby flips to head-down...well, his/her head is pressing right on your bladder. Seriously...your poor, poor bladder. 

15. What exactly is it?

As I'm sure you must have guessed, your pee is mostly water - 95%, in fact. The other 5% is made up of (depending on what you've eaten, drank, breathed, etc.) urea, uric acid, ammonia, hormones, dead blood cells, proteins, salts, minerals, and toxins. 

16. GOLDen Showers

German alchemists tried to extract gold from urine. As that obviously didn't happen, they accidentally found white phosphorus instead. 

17. Ready for a swim?

In your lifetime, your kidney will filter more than 1 million gallons of water. That's enough to clean a small lake. 

18. Taking one for the team

If you were to lose one kidney, the other can grow 50% bigger within two months and take over the job perfectly well. 

19. UT-I don't want to think about it!

Your urinary tract is comparable to a sewer system for the body, so it's no wonder that it can be the target for many issues. Here are the urinary tract conditions that are possible to experience: