The key difference between male and female urine is that the male urine may have the testosterone metabolites while the female urine has progesterone and estrogen metabolites.
The kidney is the organ that produces urine. And the urine contains byproducts of cellular metabolism such as nitrogenous wastes. Furthermore, there are two kidneys in our body. The urine production initiates at the glomerulus through blood filtration. There, the body absorbs back the essential elements and secret the wastes. Finally, the urinary bladder temporarily stores the urine produced by the kidneys until urination and then excrete it through the urethra. The urine production process does not differ whether the person is a male or a female. But, male and female urine differ in their compositions. Thus, some tiny amounts of different hormones are present in each urine type, and that contribute to the difference between male and female urine.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Male Urine
3. What is Female Urine
4. Similarities Between Male and Female Urine
5. Side by Side Comparison – Male vs Female Urine in Tabular Form
6. Summary
What is Male Urine?
Male urine may contain sperms if he has retrograde ejaculation. In the male, the genital tract and the urethra share a common pathway. Therefore, the sperms may be present in a urine sample that is collected after a sexual act.
Figure 01: Male Urethra
Furthermore, the male sex hormone is also present in male urine, hence, it facilitates the differentiation it with female urine.
What is Female Urine?
The urethra (the outlet from the bladder) is different in the male from female. Females have a shorter urethra. Hence, they have more tendencies to develop urinary tract infections. When we analyze female urine during menstruation, the urine may contain tiny amounts of red blood cells mix with it. It is just contamination of female urine during the period. Normal composition of the female urine does not include red blood cells. Furthermore, since female urethra and vagina are very close at the opening, pH and the number of epithelial cells present in female urine may be different from male urine.
Figure 02: Female Urinary System
Another special feature of the female urine is that female urine contains human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone during pregnancy. HCG secretes by the placenta. Hence, the presence of this hormone in the female urine enables the home pregnancy test to diagnose the pregnancy at home easily. Further, female urine can be analyzed to detect symptoms of menopause in females.
What are the Similarities Between Male and Female Urine?
- The production process of male and female urine is the same.
- Kidney is the main organ which produces male and female urine.
- Also, the composition of the male and female urine is more or less same.
- Water is the main component of the urine in both.
- Furthermore, nitrogenous waste is present in both male and female urine.
What is the Difference Between Male and Female Urine?
The difference between male and female urine is not significant. However, they differ slightly with the composition since the types of sex hormones are different among the gender. Therefore, hormonal products and the metabolites of the hormones vary from male and female urine. In female urine, tiny amounts of female sex hormones are present while in male urine, sperms and tiny amounts of male sex hormones are present. Thus, this is the major difference between male and female urine that allows the chemist to differentiate male and female urine.
Summary – Male vs Female Urine
Urine is an excretory product of the human metabolism. It contains water and nitrogenous wastes mainly. Urine production occurs in the kidneys, and the process does not differ in males and female. The difference between male and female urine is the composition. Male urine contains tiny amounts of male sex hormones while female urine contains tiny amounts of female sex hormones. Furthermore, due to differences in the structure of the urinary system, the chance of contamination and the pH are different in female urine than male urine. This is the difference between male and female urine.
Reference:
1.“Urine.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Sept. 2018. Available here
Image Courtesy:
1.”Diagram of the male urinary system CRUK 042″By Cancer Research UK – Original email from CRUK, (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2.Urinary System (Female)”By BruceBlaus – Own work, (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia