Tea-coloured urine: what it may mean

Urine may look tea-coloured after fluid loss, including sweating, vomiting, diarrhoea, or heat exposure. Dehydration often makes urine more concentrated and may come with thirst, dry mouth, headache, or dizziness. Tea-coloured urine with yellow eyes or skin, pale bowel movements, nausea, itching, or upper abdominal discomfort can point toward a liver or bile-flow problem, including Hepatitis A or Hepatitis B. A medicine, supplement, food pigment, or blood in the urine can create other dark shades. Colour alone cannot confirm the cause.

Think back to recent heat, exercise, illness, fluid intake, foods, and new medicines. If you are alert and able to drink, take fluids regularly and see whether the urine becomes lighter. Do not force fluids if a clinician has restricted your intake. Arrange a medical review if the colour does not settle, returns, or occurs with yellowing, pain, fever, or urinary changes. Testing can examine urine and liver function.

Seek urgent care for tea-coloured urine with confusion, fainting, severe weakness, repeated vomiting, very little urine, severe abdominal or back pain, fever, or yellow skin or eyes. After heat exposure, worsening dizziness, headache, weakness, or altered behaviour requires prompt attention because fluid and heat illness can progress.

Does this look like concentrated urine or a liver-related change? Do I need urine and blood tests? Could a medicine or supplement be responsible? How quickly should I be reviewed if the colour persists?