Kidney stones are hard objects made from chemicals in your pee. They may be as tiny as a grain of salt or as big as a corn kernel. The stones can be brown or yellow, smooth or rough. They're a sign that you might be taking in too many minerals and not enough fluids.
Sometimes, you don't have any symptoms from kidney stones. But other times, it will be obvious. Pain is the most common symptom of kidney stones. Flushing one out of your body as you pee can hurt, sometimes a lot.
Kidney Stone Pain
You may not have symptoms until the stone starts to stir. It can move around inside your kidney or into your ureter, the tube that connects your kidney to your bladder. These parts, along with your urethra (the tube taking urine from your bladder outside your body) make up your urinary tract.
You may feel pain:
- In your side or back, below your ribs
- In your lower belly
- In your groin or testicles
The pain can shift around to different places in your body. This means the stone is making its way from your kidney through the ureter to your bladder. It might also hurt more when you pee.
Your pain may range from mild to so strong that you end up in a hospital. Waves of severe pain may last from 20 minutes to an hour, before stopping for a while and then returning.
Urinary Kidney Stone Symptoms
Besides pain, you might experience the following kidney stone symptoms:
- Burning when you pee. This means a stone is near or in your bladder. It can cause a burning feeling when you urinate.
- Needing to pee more often. The kidney stone is in the lower part of your urinary tract and is irritating your bladder, causing you to have the urge to pee.
- Trouble peeing. While the kidney stone is irritating your bladder, it's also blocking your urine flow.
- Pink, red, or brown blood in your urine (hematuria). If the stone is large enough, it can irritate the lining of your urinary tract and cause it to bleed.
- Small stones in your pee. They're sometimes called gravel. These may or may not cause you pain.
- Cloudy or bad-smelling pee. The kidney stone could lead to an infection in your urinary tract.
Fever and Chills
While most of your kidney stone symptoms will be in your urinary tract, you might also get the following symptoms that affect other parts of your body:
- Fever and chills. These are signs of infection. When your immune system is fighting an infection, your body temperature rises. You may feel chilly when the fever starts and hot when the fever breaks.
- Nausea and vomiting. Kidney stones can affect nerve connections between your urinary tract and digestive system, which may result in nausea and vomiting.
Kidney Stone Symptoms in Women vs. Men
Women and men have the same kidney stone symptoms with a few differences:
- Men and people with penises may have pain in the testicles or groin because the stone is near those areas.
- Women and people with vaginas may have pelvic pain or get a urinary tract infection (UTI). A kidney stone can encourage bacterial growth, and women have shorter urethras than men, which makes it easier for bacteria to reach the bladder.
Men are twice as likely as women to experience kidney stones. Scientists have been researching the reasons and point to these factors:
- Water intake. Men often drink less water than women. Drinking too little water is a risk factor for kidney stones.
- Calcium intake. A diet high in calcium lowers the risk of kidney stones, and women tend to consume more calcium than men.
- Protein intake. Animal protein is associated with a higher risk of kidney stones in men and older women.
- Hormones. Postmenopausal women are at a greater risk of kidney stones than premenopausal women, suggesting that the female hormone estrogen might have a protective effect.
- Urinary makeup. Men tend to have a lower urine volume and more of the minerals sodium and oxalate in their urine than women. These are all factors that raise the likelihood of kidney stones.
The number of women experiencing kidney stones is rising, which may be because of their lifestyle and dietary changes.
Kidney Stones Symptoms vs. UTI
Symptoms of kidney stones and UTIs can be similar, sometimes leaving you confused over which condition you might have.
Both conditions have the same symptoms of:
- Burning while peeing
- Frequent urge to pee
- Cloudy, bloody, or smelly urine
- Pain in your body
Here are some of the differences:
- With a kidney stone, you might have pain in your back or side. With a UTI, you might have pain in your bladder, groin, or lower abdomen.
- With kidney stones, your urine is more likely to contain blood. With a UTI, your pee is more likely to be cloudy and smell bad.
- With a UTI, you might have pain when having sex.
- With kidney stones, you might have fever, nausea, and vomiting if you get an infection.
There's a strong connection between having UTIs and kidney stones, meaning that if you've had one of these conditions, you're at a raised risk of getting the other.
Do Bigger Stones Hurt More?
Generally, yes. If a stone gets stuck in one of your ureters, then it will cause a lot of pain. Your ureters are very narrow, only 3-4 millimeters (about 1/8 inch) wide. A big stone is more likely to get stuck there.
If the stone isn't moving through your ureter and is just sitting in your kidneys, then it may not cause any pain even if it's big. Small stones that are on the move may cause you more pain.
How Long Can Kidney Stone Symptoms Last?
Symptoms last at least until your stones pass. So how long do stones take to pass? It depends on the size of the stone.
| Kidney Stone Size | % That Passes on Its Own | Average Number of Days to Pass |
| Smaller than 4 mm | About 80% | 31 |
| 4-6 mm | About 60% | 45 |
| Larger than 6 mm | About 20% | 365 (1 year) |
All in all, you might have pain and symptoms for at least a month. After the stone passes, you may still have a little residual pain and soreness from your urinary tract being irritated, but it should go away in a few days.
What Are the Symptoms of Passing a Kidney Stone?
The first one is pain. Kidney stone pain will ebb and flow with the movement (or nonmovement) of the stone. Most of the time, the pain goes away when the stone enters your bladder. Your urethra is at least twice as wide as one of your ureters, so a kidney stone shouldn't give much trouble exiting your bladder, unless it's very big.
Once your stone makes it to your bladder, your body pain usually subsides, but you might start to get bladder problems like burning and frequent pee. If your stone is very large, you might have more pain as it pushes through the urethra and out your body.
Kidney Stone Pain Relief
If you've been diagnosed with kidney stones, you should:
- Drink plenty of fluids to try to flush out the stone. Aim for 2-3 quarts a day. Water is best.
- Take over-the-counter pain medication such as ibuprofen or naproxen (but ask your doctor first; NSAIDs can be harmful to your kidneys).
- Ask your doctor about prescription medicines like nifedipine (Adalat and Procardia) or tamsulosin (Flomax) that relax your ureter to help stones pass through.
When to See a Doctor
You should see a doctor if you have:
- Pain that prevents you from sitting comfortably
- Pain with nausea and vomiting
- Pain with fever and chills
- Blood in your urine
- Problems with peeing
These are all signs that you have a kidney stone. Your doctor can do blood and urine tests and a CT scan to confirm. They'll advise whether to wait for the stone to pass on its own or take other measures. In the case of larger stones, your doctor can give you treatments to break up the stones, install a stent to make the ureter temporarily wider for easier passage, or surgically remove the stones from your body.
See your doctor right away if you have severe pain or signs of an infection or urinary blockage.
Takeaways
The main kidney stone symptom is severe pain in your lower belly or side. This is from your stone making its way from your kidney to your bladder via a narrow tube called a ureter. You may also have symptoms like a frequent urge to pee, blood in your urine, smelly or cloudy pee, and fever and chills if you get an infection. Talk to your doctor if you have any of these kidney stone symptoms. They can give you pain relievers plus advise whether you should let the stone pass naturally or accept intervention. This usually depends on the size of the stone.
Kidney Stone Symptoms FAQs
How do you know if you have kidney stones?
Signs include severe pain in your lower belly or side, constant urge to pee, blood in your urine, plus fever and chills if you get an infection. You may also experience nausea and vomiting.
Can kidney stones cause UTI symptoms?
Sometimes, a blockage in your urinary tract from a kidney stone can cause a UTI. One study showed that people with kidney stones were 5.7 times more likely to get a UTI. Many of the symptoms of a UTI and a kidney stone are very similar.
Is diarrhea a symptom of kidney stones?
Diarrhea is not normally a symptom of kidney stones. However, it could be a cause of them. Chronic diarrhea dehydrates you, and ongoing dehydration is a top cause of kidney stones. Lack of hydration leads to less urine being created in your body and more minerals and salts, which can form into stones.
