To send a link and summary of this article to a friend, click here . The pain of passing a kidney stone has been compared to the pain of childbirth. With childbirth, there s a sweet reward. With a kidney stone, there s nothing but the production of a granular object.
Men are more likely than women to get calcium stones, and genes play a role as well.
Because of that genetic factor, if your parents or grandparents had kidney stones, you re at higher risk for getting them yourself. Some people have a tendency to excrete high levels of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate. If all goes well, you get rid of these calcium salts every time you urinate. But sometimes, however, the salts hang around the kidneys like bad leftovers. Eighty percent of all kidney stones are composed of these calcium salts.