Kidney Stones Symptoms In Women
When the urine has too much of certain substances, stones are formed in the kidney as an aggregation of these into crystals. When the stones move through the ureters with the flow of urine, there are several symptoms that may happen depending on the situation at that time.
• Depending on the substance that aggregates into crystals, kidney stones are of different types of kidney stones.
• Among the most common are kidney stones with calcium and they occur more often in men rather than in women. The age at which these typically appear is when the individual is in their 20 – 30s.Calcium combines with substances such as phosphate, carbonate and oxalate to form kidney stones.
• Cystinuria is a disorder that affects men as well as women and often runs in families. This causes cystine stones to form.
• Found more commonly in women, struvite stones often happen in women with urinary tract infections. Growing to large sizes, these kidney stones can cause blockages in the ureter, bladder or the kidney.
• Stones of uric acid are more common in men than they are in women and can occur with chemotherapy or gout.
• There are other substances as well that can form stones.
Kidney Stone Symptoms in Women
Though the problem with kidney stones symptoms in women is more common in men than in women, the incidents of women having kidney stones have been increasing and it has been observed that problems in women are due to bad habits with diet. For example, consumption of high protein food while cutting down on vegetables and fruits is thought to have brought about this problem in women. And, as in the case of men, women who have kidney stones once have a chance that the problem will recur.
Kidney stone symptoms in women are similar to those in men and are generally as follows –
Starting with severe pain that starts and stops suddenly, there may be pain in the area of the belly or the back to a side. In addition, there may be pain in the area of the groin.
Other symptoms are:
• Nausea
• Abnormalcy in the color of urine
• Chills
• Presence of blood as a part of urine
• Fever
• Vomiting
Pain in the lower abdomen prior to and during menstruation is common in women and though the pain could be likely due to the kidney stones, the women may not be able to identify it. It is important under such circumstances to observe if a urinary disorder follows the pain or perhaps there is vomiting, nausea, fever or dullness. If these observed, it is advised to contact the doctor for further diagnosis. Persistence of pain after menstruation could also be due to kidney stones and it is better to check with a doctor since there could be other causes also for this pain.
Women who take supplements for calcium should be careful since about 80 percent of female kidney stone symptoms are calcium stones. It has been studied that taking supplements as an inclusive part of a meal rather than as a supplement to it reduces the risk to a very large extent. However, there has not yet been a consensus on this.
Among women, it has been studied that struvite stones caused due to chronic bacterial infection of the urinary track are more common in women and, due to their size; these can cause serious damage to the kidneys.