Most women will agree the most painful experience is childbirth. What about men? Most often, they will blame something as small as a kidney stone for their pain.

>
Kidney stones affect more men than women and they are more common after the age of 30. They come in all sizes and if you're passing a stone, you know it. There is usually a sudden onset of severe pain.

Eighty percent of the stones are made up of calcium oxalate; fewer stones are comprised of uric acid. They can be found in the kidney, bladder or the ureter. Most people who feel pain think it’s because the stone is moving. Not so says urologist Dr. Charles Schwartz.

“If the stone is moving, urine is getting by your stone you don't know it is there. It's when the stone blocks the flow of urine and the ureter and kidney are dilated and they are getting stretched out that is what your body is interpreting as the pain. So it is when it is ally stuck as long as it is moving down, you don't know it is there,” Schwartz said.

Reduce your risk by drinking plenty of fluids.

"Water certain is the best thing you can drink. The other thing I like people to drink is lemonade. Squeeze a lemon into their water, especially if they are forming calcium oxalate stones, as this adds citrate which can be a stone inhibitor," said Dr. Schwartz.

Your family history plays an important role whether or not you will develop kidney stones, but your diet is also very important, especially fast food, which is usually high in fat and sodium.

Smaller stones are often passed. If stones are bigger, open surgery is not needed. Shockwaves and lasers, which break up the stones, are now used. For bigger stones, a more invasive procedure is needed.

"Percutaneous nephro lithotripsy. This is putting a tube through the back directly into the kidney dilating up the tract, put up the scope and using a form of ultrasound it goes in and breaks up the stone and sucks out the fragments as it is doing it,” said Schwartz.