Any man who has ever had a slight headache knows exactly what it’s like for a woman to go through 12 hours of excruciating labour during birth. /s

I was in so much agony I got out of the hospital bed to find a nurse to get me something for the pain, she told me I had something 2 hrs ago and ‘had to wait’, next minute I woke up on the floor with some alarms going off… I have never been in that much pain before… but I haven’t given birth

Women can have them too, so they have double the pain! I never had a kidney stone but I remember a classmate in highschool had a really bad one in class and had to be carried off by teachers because he couldn’t even walk thanks to the pain.

For me personally, I’ve passed at least two and they were a non-event.

At least according to my mother she rather give birth to me and my brother twice over before she passes a single kidney stone again.

So I assume it’s going to vary WILDLY based on how difficult the birth is.

Not an answer to the question, but you should look up the different types of kidney stones. And shapes. And sizes. The uric acid ones can be popcorn kernels or unholy amalgamations of shattered glass. And they can sometimes be too big to pass at all.

Anyway, drink water.

TBH, mine hurt far more when they were in the kidneys than actually passing them did. Passing them just felt like peeing out a scratchy grain of sand with the rest of the flow. When they were still in the kidneys, though, I’d get pangs of pain that would completely crumple me over and make tears come out. Not nice.

I feel uniquely qualified to answer this, unfortunately, as someone who has given birth naturally several times and passed a kidney stone when I was 20.

The stone was more terrifying because I didn’t know what was happening, I had intense pain and was pissing blood, thought I was dying but by the next day felt nothing and when I went to the doctor he said “you passed a stone, it’s gone now, drink more water.”

I have had migraines more painful than either, but not as urgent feeling as the bladder stone, if that makes sense. They are depressing not terrifying. Childbirth hurts but doesn’t feel like either, it’s productive and sort of exciting, you are having a baby. So it hurts a lot but without the negative emotions it’s easier in a way.

ETA after reading Velma’s post - I never had labor for days with mine, 2 (the first and last) were “precipitous” which basically means I only got the worst part of labor and only for about 20 minutes, one I got the ideal, about 4 hours so time to get used to it and gentler start, and one did take over a day but that was because water broke and no labor, had to be induced (with acupuncture!) and an induced labor hurts more so that was the most painful one, but only a couple of hours. So when I say childbirth not as bad I mean not a complicated one.

Those are different kinds of pain affecting different parts of the body.

When I had my kidney stones, the ER nurse said that some women who got them said it was as bad or worse than giving birth, but it was a different type of pain.

Giving birth took many days whereas passing a kidney stone took hours. Recovery is entirely different as well.

I guess maybe in terms of intensity of pain, passing a kidney stone is along the same lines as an intense contraction. Just one intense contraction.

Doubt it. I’ve had much worse pains than pissing out a kidney stone, such as orchitis

Pain is subjective, also not every case causes the same amount of pain. I’d imagine a person that has experienced both would be the only one able to answer.

Mine was really uncomfortable but not really bad. I was in the hospital, had to pee through a sieve (to find out if it passed) and knew where it currently was, as I could feel it. I also had gallstones and the colics due to these were A LOT worse. I didn’t know before, you can just vomit from pain. I had an operation to get rid of the problem.

I was with my (then) wife there when both kids were born. I’d still would not want to go through that.

There is a lot that is more painful than giving birth.

How would I, as a man, know this to be absolutely true?

Because many women, even after the most painful of childbirths possible, go “let’s try for another one!!”

Meanwhile, everyone who has had a kidney stone - or, to be traditional with this metaphor, a man who has been bodily kicked in the nuts - NEVER wants to go through that kind of pain ever again. And invariably not for any kind of benefit, even if it’s millions of dollars of tax-free cash.