The idea that pee is sterile is often shared as a surprising factoid and is even cited by some respected hospitals and public health departments. But does this idea still hold up? Is pee actually sterile?
"No, of course not!" said Dr. Elizabeth Mueller, a urologist at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois. Like many people, she once believed the urinary tract lacked bacteria in its normal state. But then her colleague Alan Wolfe, a professor of microbiology at Loyola University Chicago, heard that idea and was dumbfounded. "There's a hole to the outside," he told Live Science. "What force field is keeping the bacteria out?"
