The most common symptom of kidney stones is severe back or abdominal pain. This may be accompanied by nausea and vomiting. If you have a urinary tract infection as well, your symptoms may include fever, chills, sweats, and pain with urination. Kidney stones and urinary tract infection can cause blood to be in the urine. Usually the blood is seen only with a microscope, but occasionally it is more obvious.
Some people have no kidney stone symptoms until they pass gravel-like stones in their urine.
Others never have any symptoms, and their stones are found incidentally during testing for other problems. Your doctor may suspect you have kidney stones if you have severe abdominal or back pain with no other likely causes. He or she will look for blood in your urine. Sometimes the pattern of pain over time is helpful in the diagnosis. The pain may move from the upper to the lower abdomen over a few hours.