Sweet Smelling Urine? 5 Potential Reasons This Might Be Happening
A sweet aroma after urinating could be a cause of concern — where is that fruity smell coming from? Sweet-smelling urine usually indicates a serious underlying medical condition. Your pee might smell sweet as a result of your body releasing chemicals into your urine, like bacteria, glucose, or amino acids.
Whatever the cause of your sweet-smelling urine is, a doctor’s visit is due. Therefore, make sure to get immediate medical attention to examine what’s behind this symptom. In this blog, we’ll explain a few reasons your pee has a fruity odor.
Why Does My Urine Smell Sweet?
Some reasons why you have sweet-smelling urine include:
Urinary Tract Infections (UTI)
Urinary tract infections, or UTIs, are infections that occur in the urinary system. Urine travels from the bladder to the outside of one’s body via a tube called the urethra. An infection could result from bacteria traveling up the urethra. One of the symptoms of UTI is sweet-smelling urine due to the bacteria dispelled into the urine. Besides this, the affected individual will experience a burning sensation when urinating. Moreover, the urge to pee would increase.
Your doctor would conduct a urinalysis to diagnose the infection. If confirmed, they will prescribe pain relievers or antibiotics to treat the infection.
High Blood Sugar Levels or Diabetes
When a diabetic suffers from increased blood sugar levels, hyperglycemia occurs. Sweet smelling urine is a common occurrence with diabetes. This is because the body expels the excess blood sugar through urine. As a result, your urine gets a sweet odor. You might also have the urge to constantly urinate with this condition.
Fruity urine is a diabetes symptom; make sure to visit a specialist for diagnosis. And if you already have diabetes, this could be a sign of mismanagement. You should consult your doctor for guidance on how to manage your diabetes better.
Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA)
Severely mismanaged diabetes can have serious consequences, diabetic ketoacidosis being one of them. Oftentimes, people discover they have diabetes after developing DKA.
When the body has insufficient glucose, it needs to burn fat for energy. To do so, a fat-burning process occurs, which releases ketones. Consequently, blood acidity increases due to ketones building up. In simple words, this could lead to a coma and needs immediate treatment, like insulin therapy.
Your healthcare provider might diagnose this condition with the help of a urine test or ketone testing strips. Make sure to get medical help as soon as you notice DKA symptoms!
Foetor Hepaticus
Also known as the ‘breath of the dead’, foetor hepaticus can lead to a musty or sweet-smelling breath. This condition is a side effect of portal hypertension and liver disease and could also result in your pee smelling sweet.
Treatment depends on your specific case and might include surgery or medications.
Maple Syrup Urine Disease
A rare genetic disorder, clinically known as chain ketoaciduria, could be the reason you have sweet-smelling urine. You might suffer from this disease if you inherit a mutated gene from each of your parents.
Amino acids are essential for maintaining bodily functions. However, MSUD can stop amino acids from doing so. You might experience sweet-smelling urine, similar to the odor of caramel or maple. Seizures, poor feeding, and delayed development are also indications of this disease.
You should get immediate treatment for MSUD, or it can have terrible consequences like brain damage or coma.
The Takeaway
Sweet-smelling urine could indicate many underlying medical conditions, like diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis, and more. Make sure to receive immediate medical attention from an experienced professional like our Aqeeq Internal Medicine team. Talk to us at (832) 786-8195. You can also visit our team at 16125 Cairnway Dr. Ste 114 Houston, TX 77084, right next to Chiropractic Clinic.