Have you noticed tiny white specks in your urine?

Perhaps you then decided to collect your urine in a clear plastic cup to see if this happens again.

And sure enough, there are tiny white specks floating around in your urine.

Now before you panic, ask yourself if you very recently began using Estrace or a generic Estradiol vaginal cream.

“Estrace is a vaginal cream prepared by using a bioidentical female hormone estradiol in a topical form,” says Natasha Fuksina, MD, an internal and integrative medicine specialist who combines traditional and functional medicine to restore health and function.

Dr. Fuksina explains, “It is used to alleviate uncomfortable symptoms associated with menopause such as vaginal dryness, vaginal pain and difficulty with intercourse.

“Estradiol must be mixed with other ingredients to give the cream its whitish color, consistency and transport molecules to help with absorption.

“Invariably, small amounts of cream will be expelled from the vagina during routine activities and appear in urine, giving it the appearance of white specks.”

This can even happen overnight when movement is minimal, especially if the application was external or on the surface of the vagina’s opening rather than inserted internally.

This would leave residual Estrace externally, near the urethra.

Urine exiting the urethra, which is very close to the vagina, would pick up some of this white residue and expel it with the urine stream.

When Estrace or a generic estradiol cream is the cause of these small white particles, they will disappear after you stop using the topical.

Here are the medical conditions that can cause white specks or particles in one’s urine.

Dr. Fuksina is the founder of astraMDhealth, which includes telemedicine. Double board certified in internal and obesity medicine, she focuses on a personalized approach, including metabolism and genetic makeup, to customize treatments and preventive care.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.