Sharp, stabbing pain that comes in waves is common. Overall, symptoms tend to be similar in men and women. However, men can sometimes experience pain radiating to the tip of their penis when the stone is low in the ureter, says Marchalik.
In addition to pain, kidney stones can cause other symptoms: 6 , 7 , 8. As a general rule, you need to seek medical attention if you experience any of the following symptoms:. A kidney stone with a urinary tract infection UTI may cause sepsis and must be treated immediately. If urine is trapped behind a kidney stone that is blocking the ureter, the urine can become infected, says Seth K. This, in turn, can cause an infection of the kidney tissue or result in the infection spreading to the bloodstream, causing sepsis, he explains.
Additionally, over time stones can become infected and harbor bacteria, causing urinary tract infections , adds Dr. Some people who have a history of recurrent UTIs are found to have a large stone that continuously sheds bacteria into the urine. When doctors suspect that someone has a kidney stone with a UTI, they place a tube in the ureter or kidney to drain the backed up, infected urine, says Bechis.
In addition, antibiotics are given to treat infection. While men are more prone to kidney stones than women, women are more likely to get UTIs, says Lieske. Call a doctor right away if you think you have kidney stones.
Watch for severe pain in your side, belly, or groin or for urine that looks pink or red. You may also feel sick to your stomach nausea and may vomit. You may first find out that you have kidney stones when you see your doctor or go to an emergency room with pain in your belly or side. Your doctor will ask you questions about your pain and lifestyle.
He or she will examine you and may do imaging tests such as a CT scan or an ultrasound to look at your kidneys and urinary tract.
You may need more tests if you have more than one stone or have a family history of stones. To find out the cause of your kidney stones, your doctor may order a blood test and ask you to collect your urine for 24 hours. This can help your doctor find out if you are likely to have more stones in the future. Kidney stones may not cause any pain. If this is the case, you may learn you have them when your doctor finds them during a test for another disease.
For most stones, your doctor will suggest that you take care of yourself at home. You may need to take pain medicine. You'll need to drink enough water and other fluids so you don't get dehydrated. Your doctor may give you a medicine to help the stone pass.
If a stone is too large to pass on its own, or if it gets stuck in the urinary tract, you may need more treatment. The most common treatment is extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy ESWL. ESWL uses shock waves to break a kidney stone into small pieces. The bits can pass out of your body in your urine. Other times, a doctor will need to remove the stone or place a small flexible plastic tube called a stent in the ureter to keep it open while stones pass.
After you have had kidney stones, you are more likely to have them again. You can help prevent them by drinking plenty of water, enough so that your urine is light yellow or clear like water, about 8 to 10 glasses of water a day. You may have to eat less of certain foods. Your doctor may also give you medicine that helps prevent stones from forming. Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health. Kidney stones may form when the normal balance of water, salts, minerals, and other substances found in urine changes.
How this balance changes determines the type of kidney stone you have. Most kidney stones are calcium-type —they form when the calcium levels in your urine change. Things that change your urine balance include:. More commonly, kidney stones can run in families, as stones often occur in family members over several generations.
In rare cases, a person forms kidney stones because the parathyroid glands produce too much of a hormone. This leads to higher calcium levels and possibly calcium kidney stones. Kidney stones form in the kidney. If they stay in the kidney, they typically do not cause pain. When they travel out of the body through the tubes of the urinary tract including the ureters, which connect the kidney to the bladder, or the urethra, which leads outside the body , their movement may cause:.
Conditions with similar symptoms include appendicitis, hernias, ectopic pregnancy, and prostatitis. A kidney stone begins as a tiny piece of crystal in the kidney. When the urine leaves the kidney, it may carry the crystal out, or the crystal may stay in the kidney. If the crystal stays in the kidney, over time more small crystals join it and form a larger kidney stone.
Most stones leave the kidney and travel through the urinary tract when they are still small enough to pass easily out of the body. No treatment is needed for these stones. Larger stones may become stuck in the tubes that carry urine from the kidney to the bladder ureters.
This can cause pain and possibly block the urine from flowing to the bladder and out of the body. The pain often becomes worse over 15 to 60 minutes until it is severe. The pain may ease when the stone no longer blocks the flow of urine. And the pain often goes away when the stone passes into the bladder.
Medical treatment is often needed for larger stones. Problems that may occur with kidney stones include:. Kidney stones are more serious for people who have a single kidney or an impaired immune system or have had a kidney transplant.
When stones occur during pregnancy, an obstetrician and urologist should determine whether you need treatment. Treatment will depend on your trimester of pregnancy.
Several risk factors things that put you at risk for kidney stones make it more likely that you will get them. Some of these things you can control, and others you cannot. Call a doctor immediately if you have symptoms that suggest you have a kidney stone, such as:. Call your doctor if you have been diagnosed with a kidney stone and have another problem, such as:. Call your doctor to find out if you need an examination when you:. Watchful waiting is a wait-and-see approach.
If you get better on your own, you won't need medical treatment. If you get worse, you and your doctor will decide what to do next. If you are passing a kidney stone under your doctor's advice, you may be able to pass the stone without medical treatment if you:. If you need immediate help because of pain from kidney stones, you may see an emergency medicine specialist. Your family doctor or general practitioner can diagnose and treat non-urgent kidney stones.
In some cases your may be referred to a urologist or an internist. Your first diagnosis of kidney stones often occurs when you see your doctor or go to an emergency room because you are in great pain.
Your doctor or an emergency medicine specialist will ask you questions and examine you. After you pass a stone, your doctor may give you another examination to find out whether you are likely to get kidney stones again.
Your doctor may do one or more of the following tests to help diagnose kidney stones, see where they are located, and find out if they are causing or may cause damage to the urinary tract. Finding out the type of your kidney stone will help with treatment decisions and measures to prevent stones from forming again.
Tests you may have include:. For small stones, most people don't need any treatment other than taking pain medicine and drinking enough fluids. Imaging tests may show kidney stones in your urinary tract. High-speed or dual energy computerized tomography CT may reveal even tiny stones. Simple abdominal X-rays are used less frequently because this kind of imaging test can miss small kidney stones. Ultrasound, a noninvasive test that is quick and easy to perform, is another imaging option to diagnose kidney stones.
Our caring team of Mayo Clinic experts can help you with your kidney stones-related health concerns Start Here. Most small kidney stones won't require invasive treatment. You may be able to pass a small stone by:.
The parathyroid glands, which lie behind the thyroid, manufacture the parathyroid hormone, which plays a role in regulating your body's levels of the minerals calcium and phosphorus.
Kidney stones that are too large to pass on their own or cause bleeding, kidney damage or ongoing urinary tract infections may require more-extensive treatment. Procedures may include:.
Using sound waves to break up stones. For certain kidney stones — depending on size and location — your doctor may recommend a procedure called extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy ESWL. ESWL uses sound waves to create strong vibrations shock waves that break the stones into tiny pieces that can be passed in your urine. The procedure lasts about 45 to 60 minutes and can cause moderate pain, so you may be under sedation or light anesthesia to make you comfortable.
ESWL can cause blood in the urine, bruising on the back or abdomen, bleeding around the kidney and other adjacent organs, and discomfort as the stone fragments pass through the urinary tract. Surgery to remove very large stones in the kidney. A procedure called percutaneous nephrolithotomy nef-row-lih-THOT-uh-me involves surgically removing a kidney stone using small telescopes and instruments inserted through a small incision in your back.
You will receive general anesthesia during the surgery and be in the hospital for one to two days while you recover. Your doctor may recommend this surgery if ESWL is unsuccessful. Using a scope to remove stones. To remove a smaller stone in your ureter or kidney, your doctor may pass a thin lighted tube ureteroscope equipped with a camera through your urethra and bladder to your ureter. Once the stone is located, special tools can snare the stone or break it into pieces that will pass in your urine.
Your doctor may then place a small tube stent in the ureter to relieve swelling and promote healing. You may need general or local anesthesia during this procedure. Parathyroid gland surgery. Some calcium phosphate stones are caused by overactive parathyroid glands, which are located on the four corners of your thyroid gland, just below your Adam's apple. When these glands produce too much parathyroid hormone hyperparathyroidism , your calcium levels can become too high and kidney stones may form as a result.
If you previously had cystine stones , you may need to drink even more. The amount of liquid you need to drink depends on the weather and your activity level. If you live, work, or exercise in hot weather, you may need more liquid to replace the fluid you lose through sweat.
A health care professional may ask you to collect your urine for 24 hours to determine the amount of urine you produce a day. If the amount of urine is too low, the health care professional may advise you to increase your liquid intake. If you have had a kidney stone, a health care professional also may prescribe medicines to prevent future kidney stones.
Depending on the type of kidney stone you had and what type of medicine the health care professional prescribes, you may have to take the medicine for a few weeks, several months, or longer. For example, if you had struvite stones, you may have to take an oral antibiotic for 1 to 6 weeks, or possibly longer. If you had another type of stone, you may have to take a potassium citrate tablet 1 to 3 times daily.
You may have to take potassium citrate for months or even longer until a health care professional says you are no longer at risk for kidney stones. Talk with a health care professional about your health history prior to taking kidney stone medicines.
Some kidney stone medicines have minor to serious side effects. Side effects are more likely to occur the longer you take the medicine and the higher the dose. Tell the health care professional about any side effects that occur when you take kidney stone medicine.
People with hyperparathyroidism , a condition that results in too much calcium in the blood, sometimes develop calcium stones.
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