A few months ago whilst having dinner with friends that I found out that some people's urine develops a strange and distinctive smell when they have eaten asparagus: apparently a genetic feature. As this is not something I've ever noticed, I didn't think I had this genetic trait.
One of the potential risks of amniocentesis, though I think it's incredibly unlikely, is leaking amniotic fluid. So when, a couple of times after mine had been carried out, I had rather strange smelling urine, I wondered a little bit if it was amniotic fluid leaking: though I had no other symptoms and could feel the baby moving and so forth, so I wasn't unduly concerned but did tend to think that it must be something I'd eaten.
Today, having felt very little movement, I got a bit concerned again: so looked up 'amniotic fluid leakage' on the internet. It still didn't appear that I had those symptoms.
I lay on my bed for a while to see if the baby would move: he did, but I think he must be lying further back or something as the movements are not so distinct as they have been (and it is of course still early on in terms of feeling movements). Whilst lying there I remembered the asparagus wee-smell 'effect': and realised that I have eaten quite a lot of asparagus twice recently, and that the days would very likely coincide with the days when the smell has been strange. I double-checked with Husband: yes, asparagus makes your urine smell distinctive and different.
So I've come to the conclusion that being pregnant has changed the effect of asparagus on me, genetics or not: most likely, I think, that my sense of smell has been heightened by pregnancy. And by the way, I still like green olives. The wierdness of pregnancy!
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Food Idiosyncrasies: Beetroot and Asparagus
S. C. Mitchell
In McKusick's tome on Mendelian inheritance, a personal communication to the editor from W. K. Maas explains that a nonexcretor may become an excretor during pregnancy, the unborn child presumed to be an excretor (and also, I assume, the father) (McKusick, 1983).
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