simvastatin and urine smell

[blondiemum]

i have been on simvastatin now for 5years, and ever since i went onto them my urine has been very dark in colour and very strong smelling.Is this normal,and should it be continuing for these 5 years, i thought 5year ago that the colour of the urine would go back to near normal and that the strong smell would have reduced or went away by now?every time i go to the docs i keep forgetting to bring this up with him, so have decided to ask any real medics on herefor some advise on the subject. many thanks for any replies.
forgot to mention i,m also taking clopidogral for the same length of time, i,m assuming its the simvastatin thats causing the query i have or could it be the clopidogral ?
Stephen, i have not noticed any changes with the amount i drink,normally only drink tap/filtered water, diluted orange juice and black coffee.
Rhianna; went for blood tests 3 months ago (3/4 phials/tubes of blood were taken )and sent away for tests, results were ok but had to go back for a glucose test ,which also turned out to be ok (no diabetes)
was retired through ill health with athritis of cervical and lumber regions of spine and was taken of all medication as i had developed problems with my stomach due to athritis medication, was put onto lanzaprazole for stomach,paracetomel for athritis pains and low dosage of diazepam for to help ease /relax the muscles when they go into spasm.
medication;-simvastatin/clopidogral/lanzaprazole/diazepam/paracetomel

[lil806mama]

Hi. Dark or yellow urine can simply be explained by dehydration, have you tried increasing your fluid intake? Try and drink 2 litres of water daily. The main concern here is that in VERY rare cases, the dark urine could be the result of the Simvastatin.

This class of drug can cause side effects such as breakdown of the skeletal muscle tissue and the breakdown product can spill into the urine and make the urine appear dark.

This is very rare and effects 1/100,000 patients taking statins. Another rare side effect of this medication is liver issues, which can also result in dark urine. For this reason, I suggest you see your GP this week who will do a liver and kidney function test. I highly doubt you do have this as you'd likely have other symptoms. This is a rare side effect but it must be excluded as a possibility as soon as possible. The fact you have been taking the statin for 5 years with no other ill effects makes this scenario even more unlikely.

Do you have any muscle aches and pains? What other medical conditions do you have? How long have you been taking the Plavix for?

Edit
OK, that's fine, at least that excludes that possibility. Did you have bleeding in your GI tract? You mentioned stomach problems? My only other concern would be whether you have some issue with your stomach, and you are bleeding which has been made worse by Plavix (clopidogrel). Again, after 5 years, I think you'd have more symptoms. Very rarely Lansoprazole could in theory cause dark urine too.

Mention this to your GP and he will also want a urine sample too. In the meantime try and increase fluid intake (no more than 2.5 litres) and see if that helps.

[tinmuning]

Simvastatin can cause, although rarely, muscle tissue breakdown. The breakdown product can then spill into the urine and make the urine dark in colour. Dehydration, like what the previous poster said, could also be the cause.

It is very important to bring this issue up to your doctor. To prevent forgetting this, you can have a reminder in your calender like "Ask doc re: dark urine" or you can set up a reminder in you mobile phone on the date of your doctor's appointment.