Why is my urine yellow?

Dear Doc,

I drink lots of water but my urine is still yellowish.

The body is able to regulate the amount of water it has so that if it is short on water it conserves water by producing more concentrated urine, which will appear dark yellow.

When one takes lots of fluids, one passes more urine, which may then be lighter hence it may be straw or light yellow in colour, though in some cases it may be colourless. So urine being straw-coloured or light yellow means you are taking enough fluids.

Using the colour of urine to know how much water or fluids to take is useful since water loss depends on the surrounding, temperature or humidity apart from the body activity, all which may never be the same always. This therefore means one cannot rely on eight glasses a day with different water loss situations.

My girlfriend is three months pregnant but she gets her period. When I asked her to visit a doctor she said the same happens to her sisters. Is this normal or is she aborting?

Many times, when a woman misses periods even without tests to confirm pregnancy, she may be deemed pregnant. Sometimes a woman can miss periods when she is not pregnant and bleeding may be thought to be due to a miscarriage when in some cases it is not.

Bleeding in early pregnancy might mean the womb is threatening to miscarry or has already miscarried but some pregnancy pieces remain or if bleeding and abdominal pain have eased or stopped the products of pregnancy may have all been expelled.

When there is bleeding in pregnancy, an ultrasound scan should be done to make sure the baby is still alive. If the baby is alive, there are good chances even after repeated bleeding that the baby will survive. Bleeding in pregnancy requires visiting an antenatal clinic for help because it can result in serious problems including bleeding to death or infections among many others.

You need to go with your girlfriend for antenatal visits where tests will be carried out to determine what is wrong.

There are times when there is pus on my penis. What causes this?

Pus indicates an ongoing infection. You may also have pain or irritation when passing urine, urethral itchiness or abdominal pain. It may be due to gonorrhoea, chlamydia, trichomonas, or other bacterial infections.

If not treated, the symptoms may reduce with time, though the infection is still present. The danger with this is that the infection can spread to the testicles and the rest of the reproductive tract and lead to infertility; or spread to the rest of the body, causing serious illness.

You need to see a doctor who will examine you and take urine and discharge samples for analysis and culture.

You also need a chlamydia test and a HIV test. You will be given antibiotics to treat the infection, depending on the results. Abstain from sex until you have completed treatment, been re-tested and found to be cured.