Odds are, you take your ability to pee normally for granted. You just head to the bathroom when you have to go, do your thing, flush, and go about your life. So it’s understandable, then, that you wouldn’t give it much thought beyond that until things start to go wrong and you develop kidney stones symptoms.
While you’ve probably heard of kidney stones before, you might be a little fuzzy on the details. Kidney stones are small, hard mineral deposits that can form in your kidneys. They’re usually made up of specific minerals—90 percent of stones are calcium oxylate and 10 percent are uric acid, says David Kaufman, M.D., director of Central Park Urology, a division of Maiden Lane Medical in New York City. Kidney stones usually form when someone has a decrease in the volume of their urine or an increase of minerals in their pee that actually form the stones, although some people are just prone to developing them, says Brian Norouzi, M.D., a urologist with St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California.
While kidney stones are slightly more common in men than women, anyone can develop them, says Ralph V. Clayman, M.D., a professor in the department of urology at the University of California, Irvine. (It’s not totally clear why men are more likely to develop kidney stones, but it’s often linked to a higher salt diet and dehydration, Norouzi says. (Kick-start your new, healthy routine with Women’s Health’s 12-Week Total-Body Transformation!)
There are a few ways doctors can treat kidney stones, and it ultimately depends on their size and location, Kaufman says. The majority of stones will pass, meaning, you’ll have to pee them out, but it’s “not fun,” he says. Larger stones can be broken up into smaller pieces with a device called an Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripter that passes energy waves into the body directly at the stone, Norouzi says.
Unfortunately, though, some will need multiple zaps to break down. (Some stones can be 1.5 centimeters or larger!) The fragments can then be peed out or your doctor can put you under anesthesia and run a small telescope into your urinary tract to remove them, he says. In rare cases, more invasive procedures are required to remove particularly pesky stones.
But, if you’re not familiar with the symptoms of kidney stones, you can easily confuse them with other things, like a urinary tract infection or appendicitis, Clayman says. Clearly, the treatments are very different, which is why it’s so important to be aware of the most common kidney-stone symptoms:
1 PAIN IN YOUR BACK, BELLY, OR SIDE
This happens because your ureter, the small tube that passes urine from your kidney to your bladder, is blocked with stones—and it doesn’t feel good, Clayman says. This can cause severe pain around your kidneys (which are located in the middle of your back), but that pain can radiate to your lower abdomen or thighs.
2 PAIN OR BURNING WHEN YOU PEE
This usually happens when a stone is about to leave your ureter and enter your bladder, Norouzi says. The action stimulates your bladder and irritates the heck out of it, making it uncomfortable to go No.1.
3 BLOODY URINE
Like the inside of your mouth, the lining inside your kidney and bladder are sensitive, Norouzi explains. The stone either scratches the tissue or irritates it, causing the bleeding, which shows up in your pee.
4 ONLY PEEING A SMALL AMOUNT AT A TIME
This happens when the stone passes through the ureter, Kaufman says. When this happens, it irritates your bladder, making you feel like you have to go a lot and often—even if you don’t.
5 NAUSEA AND VOMITING
This could be a sign that your kidney is obstructed, meaning the ureter is partially or totally blocked, preventing urine from making its way onto your bladder, Clayman says. The nerves to your intestines and kidney are shared, and a kidney obstruction can impact your digestive tract, making you feel nauseous and even vomit.
6 FEVER AND CHILLS
Obviously, having a fever and chills alone isn’t a sign of kidney stones, but if you have them with other symptoms, it’s a sign that you have an infection (stones can act as a safe haven for bacteria). “That becomes a medical emergency,” Kaufman says, and it needs to be treated immediately. If you experience a fever and chills along with the other tell-tale symptoms of kidney stones, get to the emergency room ASAP. Only once the stone is removed will doctors be able to clear up the infection with antibiotics, he says.
