Ask a doctor - How painful are kidney stones?

Q. How painful are kidney stones?

Doctor Answer is medically reviewed by SecondMedic medical review team.

Answered by Seconmedic Expert

Kidney stones can be very painful and are often described as labor-like pains. The pain usually begins in your flank, which is the area on either side of your spine between the bottom of your ribcage and your hips. As a stone moves down one of the tubes (ureters) that connect each kidney to the bladder, it can cause spasms and waves of intense pain that may come in waves lasting 20 to 60 minutes each.

The intensity of this pain varies from person to person, but for most sufferers it is among the most excruciating experiences they will ever go through. Some people even compare it to childbirth or having multiple broken bones at once. It has been described by some sufferers as feeling like being stabbed with a knife over and over again with no sign of relief in sight.

Many report an inexorable pressure accompanied by nausea or vomiting as well as sharp sudden jolts when urine passes near or around a stubbornly stuck stone(s). For some individuals, there is no relief until medical intervention – such as extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) - takes place or until time passes naturally and allows the body's natural processes to dissolve small stones passed out in urine without causing any symptoms whatsoever.

To sum up, kidney stones can be extremely painful! But luckily advances in medical technology make treatment much easier than before so if you’re getting them checked out quickly enough you should be able to avoid any serious issues related to their passing!