Why Is My Pee Orange? Causes and Red Flags

Dehydration can tint pee slightly orange, and so can some foods, vitamins and medicines. Cleveland Clinic’s page on urine changes says most changes aren’t due to a health concern and should return to normal within a day or two. The same page says orange-hued urine can be a sign of liver or bile duct problems, so it helps to know which explanation fits your day.

What can turn urine orange

Compiled from Cleveland Clinic, the MedlinePlus encyclopedia and MedlinePlus drug information:

Cause	How the source describes the color
Dehydration	Darker yellow or slightly orange (Cleveland Clinic)
Carrots	Light orange; a lot of carrots can make urine dark yellow or light orange (Cleveland Clinic)
Vitamin C supplements	Orange, or dark yellow (Cleveland Clinic)
B complex vitamins, carotene	Dark yellow or orange (MedlinePlus)
Phenazopyridine (Pyridium)	Red-orange or brown, harmless (MedlinePlus)
Rifampin	Temporary yellow, reddish-orange or brown color (MedlinePlus)
Warfarin	Dark yellow or orange (MedlinePlus encyclopedia)
Some chemotherapy medicines	Orange (Cleveland Clinic)
Recent laxative use	Dark yellow or orange (MedlinePlus)
Liver or bile duct problems	Orange-hued (Cleveland Clinic)

Start with how much you drank

The NHS counts dark yellow, strong-smelling pee as a symptom of dehydration, along with thirst, headache, feeling dizzy or tired, a dry mouth and peeing less often than usual. It says dehydration happens more easily after too long in the sun or heat, sweating a lot after exercise, being sick or having diarrhoea, drinking too much alcohol, or having a high temperature. Its advice is to drink fluids if you have symptoms, and to drink enough during the day that your pee is a pale colour. If none of that fits your day, check the other rows of the table. See also dark urine causes.

Medicines that change the color

Phenazopyridine relieves urinary tract pain, burning and urgency. MedlinePlus says it may turn urine red-orange or brown and calls that effect harmless. The same page says to call your doctor immediately for yellowing of the skin or eyes, fever, confusion, or a sudden decrease in the amount of urine, among other symptoms.

Rifampin is used with other medicines to treat tuberculosis. It can temporarily color urine, skin, teeth, saliva, stool, sweat and tears yellow, reddish-orange or brown. MedlinePlus lists nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, dark urine, or yellowing of the skin or eyes among the side effects to call your doctor about immediately.

The MedlinePlus encyclopedia also names warfarin, a blood thinner. Its drug page warns that warfarin can cause serious bleeding, and lists pink, red or dark brown urine among the symptoms to call your doctor about immediately.

Orange pee with yellow eyes or pale poo

Cleveland Clinic says orange-hued urine can be a sign of liver or bile duct problems. The NHS jaundice page describes skin or the whites of the eyes turning yellow, and says you may also have itchy skin, darker pee and paler poo than usual. On brown or black skin the yellowing may be harder to see, but the whites of the eyes will look yellow. The NHS lists alcohol-related liver disease, gallstones, hepatitis, pancreatitis and sickle cell disease among possible causes. More in pale stool.

A made-up week

Day	Urine	Context
Mon	Orange in the evening	Long run in the heat, one bottle of water all day
Tue	Pale yellow by afternoon	Drank steadily
Wed	Bright red-orange	First day of phenazopyridine for bladder pain
Sat	Orange again	Off the medicine, no carrots; eyes look yellowish, poo paler than usual

Monday lines up with the NHS list of situations where dehydration happens more easily, and Tuesday’s pale pee is the color the NHS suggests aiming for. Wednesday is the effect MedlinePlus calls harmless for phenazopyridine, as long as none of its warning symptoms appear. On Saturday, yellowish eyes and paler poo fit the NHS description of jaundice, which it says needs an urgent GP appointment or a call to NHS 111.

When to get checked

MedlinePlus says to see a provider for an abnormal urine color that can’t be explained and doesn’t go away. Cleveland Clinic says to tell a provider about urine changes that last longer than a few days and don’t seem tied to food or a new medicine, especially with burning when you pee, fever or chills, unexplained fatigue or pain.

The NHS jaundice and dehydration pages say to ask for an urgent GP appointment or contact NHS 111 if:

• your skin or the whites of your eyes look yellow
• you have dark yellow pee or are peeing less than normal
• you feel dizzy when you stand up and it doesn’t go away, or feel unusually tired

The dehydration page says to call 999 or go to A&E if someone with signs of dehydration is confused, sleepier than normal or hard to wake, has difficulty breathing or is taking lots of quick breaths, has cold skin, or has blue, grey, pale or blotchy skin, lips or tongue. Outside the UK, contact your doctor promptly, or your local emergency number in that last case. This article is general information, not medical advice.

How bellySignal helps

bellySignal records urine color on a 1 to 8 hydration scale, which is the app’s own guide rather than a medical standard, and lets you mark unusual colors. You can log water in cups or mL, tag foods such as carrots, and add notes like “started phenazopyridine” or “eyes look yellow.” Stool color goes in the same diary, so paler poo shows up next to orange pee. The app doesn’t test urine or tell you the cause, but the log shows a provider when the color started and what came before it.

Your diary is stored on your device, and you can start logging without signing up. Optional login, health platform sync, and export are available. Some health values, including stool type, symptoms, and manually entered weight, are also sent to PostHog, which is enabled by default. The analytics switch in settings controls PostHog only. Firebase Analytics receives usage events without those health values and remains active. Privacy policy.