Joe Yates
Many have often wondered the most painful thing a human can experience - is it a kick to the groin for men, childbirth for women?
Well, we've finally got the answers to settle the debate of what is the most painful natural thing you can experience... and I'm not sure if there's a winner.
Apparently, there are moms out there who have birthed several children that will state the pain experienced in one particular instance is much worse, just as there are men who agree that this condition hurts way more than a simple kick in the nuts. That condition is kidney stones.
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People who have experienced both will tell you just how much worse kidney stones are than giving birth, or being kicked in the balls - a study even touched on the subject and sided with kidney stones.
Authors of the study, Saiful Miah, Charlotte Gunner, Lucy Clayton, Suresh Venugopal, Nigel R Boucher, and Bo Parys wrote: "Thirty-six male and 23 female patients fully completed the questionnaire with age, stone size, and numerical pain rating score recorded.
"There were no statistically significant differences in these parameters between male and female patients.
"From the male cohort of patients, 88.9% stated that it was the worst pain they had ever experienced and for the female cohort this was 78.2%."
So, that's pretty definitive.
But let's hear from the medical professionals (not that the authors of the study aren't).
Professor Troy Madsen, who specializes in emergency medicine and surgery at the University of Utah, dove into the subject himself in 2022 while appearing as a guest on the Who Cares About Men's Health? podcast.
“I don't know that I ever see anyone on a regular basis in the ER who has more pain than a person who's there with a kidney stone,” he explained.
“You can tell,” he added. “You walk in the room, they're writhing […] It's just incredible pain.”
Meanwhile, a blog created by doctors at Cedars-Sinai, a medical center in Los Angeles, read: "Passing a kidney stone is said to be some of the most severe physical pain a person can experience."
If you do think you suffer from a kidney stone, the Mayo Clinic recommends to try drinking water, taking pain relievers, or medical therapy recommended by a professional to try and pass it.
If the stone is larger and causing a lot of discomfort, it is not unusual to get surgery to get it removed.