Exact Answer: 40 hours
Tramadol is a narcotic pain medication used to help with moderate to severe pain and must be prescribed by a doctor. Tramadol isn’t considered to be one of the stronger pain medications on the market, and it is certainly a less addictive alternative to something like codeine. That doesn’t mean one shouldn’t be careful though, always take the recommended dose prescribed by your doctor.
This medication is able to be detected through your urine, hair, blood, and saliva. Testing through urine is one of the most common ways to test for pain medications like this. So, how long does Tramadol stay in your urine and why exactly does it stay in your urine for this length of time?
How long does Tramadol stay in your urine?
Tramadol stays in your urine for up to 40 hours. Quite possibly even more astonishing, it can also be detected within just 2 hours of taking it (in a urine test). However, this is just an average timeframe and could depend on a number of factors. One major reason is that males and females have different body masses, metabolisms, weights, habits, and more, and these all play a huge factor in just how long Tramadol can be detected in your urine tests.
Since Tramadol has a half-life of about 6-6.5 hours, this means you could take just one pill and it could be the first you’ve ever taken, and it could still possibly show up on your urine test a couple of days later. Again, the 2-40 hour detection time of Tramadol in your urine, and the 6-hour half-life, still all depend on a number of things.
Why does Tramadol last so long in your urine test?
Speaking a little on this earlier, there are a number of reasons why this medication can last the full 40 hours, sometimes maybe even longer. Here are just a few reasons this medication could be lingering around in your body.
- Body Mass/Weight (body fat): This is again where being a male or a female could have a huge role in how long the Tramadol is lasting, both as a half-life and in your urine/drug testing.
- Age: Unfortunately, the older we get, the harder it is to fight off things that don’t always help us. This alone involves many factors also such as your diet, how much you exercise (or lack thereof), the way your organs function (or the fact they don’t function as they should), and more.
- Dosage amount: Chances are if you have just started this medication and you weren’t on any other medications that were similar prior to Tramadol, you’d probably be one of those testers who could pass a day to two days later. On the contrary, someone who takes Tramadol every single day for two years will have a much harder time cleaning out their system of the drug.
In conclusion, while the average half-life is barely a quarter of the day and the lifespan of most users being tested for Tramadol by using their urine is 2-40 hours after taking the medicine, the truth is that you just can not pinpoint exactly how long it is able to be detected for everyone. It truly just depends on your size, metabolism, dosage, and sometimes even your gender.