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Most people don't get any symptoms from their gallstones. But some people get pain in their abdomen and feel sick to their stomach.

If you don't have symptoms, you might only find out that you have gallstones by accident. These stones can show up tests done for other reasons. For example, if you have an ultrasound scan for some other reason, it may show gallstones.

Gallstones cause symptoms when they block off the tubes that carry bile. If you do get symptoms, the most common one is pain in your abdomen. Your abdomen is the area below your ribs and above your hips. The two other common symptoms are feeling sick to your stomach and vomiting.

More rarely, you may have an attack of pain that doesn't go away. With this attack, you may also get a fever. And your skin and eyes may turn yellow.

You may have gallstones for a long time before they start to bother you. And if you get symptoms, it may be weeks, months or even years before you get them again. Or you may get them quite often, especially after you eat fatty foods.

You may have different symptoms at different times. It depends on where a gallstone gets stuck and how long it stays stuck.

You get pain in your abdomen when a gallstone gets stuck in one of the tubes that carry bile. This pain is steady and bad. You usually feel it in the upper right side of your abdomen. It feels like cramping. Doctors call it biliary pain or biliary colic.

You often get this pain in the evening or at night. And it typically comes on fast, often after you eat.

With time, the gallstone may pass. It just goes into your bowel and out in your stool. In that case, your pain goes away. It may stop after only 15 minutes. But it typically goes away after four hours to six hours. Sometimes it lasts up to 24 hours.

Your first attack of biliary pain may scare you a lot because it hurts so much. You may think you're having a heart attack. You may have to stop what you are doing. Usually, painkillers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen don't work for this kind of pain. Moving around or passing gas doesn't help either.

During an attack of biliary pain, you may also feel sick to your stomach and throw up. You may be sweaty and feel restless. And your abdomen may still feel sore even after the attack has passed.

If you get regular attacks of biliary pain from gallstones, you may also:

• Feel full earlier than usual when eating
• Get indigestion
• Belch a lot after eating
• Get gas or indigestion after eating fatty food.

Other conditions can also give you symptoms like these. These conditions include an ulcer in your bowel or stomach and irritable bowel syndrome. Your doctor will check for these, too.^{1 2}

Sometimes a gallstone doesn't pass. It keeps on blocking the tube. If this happens, the bile gets trapped in your gallbladder and can't get out.

Then your gallbladder gets irritated and swollen. This is called an inflamed gallbladder. You may hear doctors refer to it as cholecystitis.

These are the most common symptoms:

• Pain in the upper right part of your abdomen that doesn't go away
• Soreness if someone presses there
• A fever
• Yellow skin and eyes
• Itchy skin
• Pale stools
• Not feeling hungry.

The pain from an inflamed gallbladder is a lot like biliary pain. But it doesn't go away. If you get this pain, you usually need to go to the hospital.

You get yellow skin and eyes when the blockage from your gallstones makes waste products build up in your body. Doctors call this jaundice. It happens in about 1 in 5 people with an inflamed gallbladder.³

You are much more likely to get an inflamed gallbladder if you have had attacks of biliary pain from gallstones in the past.

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment. ©BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2008. All rights reserved.