Am I the only one who gets temple pain during prolonged calls?

Question

I don't believe in the whole phones cause cancer thing, but I also cannot deny what I am experiencing. Here are some more details:- I experience this during phone calls of duration > 25 minutes or so.- I keep my phone maybe 10 cm away from my temple.- I experience the discomfort on the side where I am listening at the very front of my forehead.- The discomfort remains for some time after calling. I am still feeling it and I have ended the call more than 15 minutes ago.- The discomfort feels like a sporadically pulsating vein and also similiar to when I get a headache from being dehydrated (could that be it?)- I happens both with WIFI calling (VOIP?) and over LTE.- I don't experience this while using WIFI or LTE data for prolonged hours.- I experienced this throughout my whole life; throughout every generation of phone (I'm I millennial).- I lived for many years in an apartment facing a phone antenna who was just 20 meters away at most, and I did no experience additional discomfort than usual.- I don't get any discomfort from WIFI or radio signals. Except, ...- If I turn on the microwave for a prolonged period of time and stay near the door, I do experience a shrinking/tightening of my whole head. I cannot recall if this happened with all microwaves I owned.- I don't use Bluetooth ear plugs or other Bluetooth devices so I cannot comment on those.- When I was a kid, we would be tens of boy scouts packed in a minivan and driven around and everyone (except me) would be playing with their Nokia (this is late '90s / early '00s) and I would experience a similiar headache. I later attributed this to possible CO/CO2 poisoning.- This happens to me, without fail, even when I am very concentrated on the conversation and without any thought in this direction what so ever, so I don't think I am being hypochondriac.Has anyone experienced anything similiar? What could be causing it? I know next to nothing about biology, so I cannot say myself. It's such a weird phenomenon. I am not even sure I am not imagining it, but, it usually happens that during the talk, I just get this sudden sharp localized pain, and it takes me by surprise.

codingdave · Accepted Answer

Sounds less like radiation or anything like that, and more like an odd muscle cramp from some ergonomic concerns with how you take calls.

adamredwoods · Answer

Most microwaves are absorbed by your skin and bones, because it's too weak and large (wavelength) to penetrate through your body. If these waves could, we would use it for medical imaging! Instead, we use x-rays which are ionizing waves.
Microwave ovens work differently than cell phones (magnetron), so even though the frequency is the same they operate differently. Microwaves reflect off thick metal, so a quick test would be to put a copper pot or aluminum pan over that spot on your head (not touching it because it would cool your head, negating a non-biased test) and see if the microwave still bothers it.
Another test for your head-spot would be to see if microwaves are actually heating it up, so a spot thermometer might be able to detect it (but I'm doubtful).
FYI, cell phones have much less EM power than microwave ovens, and can't heat anything up. [1]
[1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oeuf-the-wall/

ipaddr · Answer

Have you seen this study? No one has mentioned: transcranial magnetic stimulation, changes in cerebral blood flow
https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-23...
"Experiments aimed at explaining these symptoms have shown changes in cerebral blood flow [6, 7], altered electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns [3, 5, 6], and changes in responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation [8] resulting from MP use..."

wruza · Answer

No headaches, but my talking ear burns after 20 minutes. May be simply physical (warm phone pushes on it).I guess there&rsquo;s no way to learn what happens except for controlled experiment. E.g. hold a turned off phone to your head. Or a cup of semi-hot water. Or use headphones when talking. Or when talking, use one headphone and put a phone to the other side of your head. Or play a youtube video in headphones and put your phone to your head as if you were listening.

Jtsummers · Answer

Have you investigated the possibility that it's the noise itself? Perhaps at a high or low frequency that you are less aware of. Especially given your notes about the microwave and car rides. Those are both noisy environments, and both can have a regular mechanical sound at frequencies that may irritate you but you may not be paying much attention to.Try standing next to your AC unit or similar mechanical system when it's running and see if it also causes a headache.

readyplayernull · Answer

I remember my cousin had an old desktop computer speaker and it would start buzzing 1-2 seconds before a nearby cellphone started ringing. I never investigated what caused that, but it seems there is some signal power rise.

anymouse2 · Answer

Hmm , not sure . I recall a manual for an early Siemens flip phone and was somewhat surprised to read (similar) that ' of the 350 people ( of 600 ) whom tested positive for BRAIN CANCER , that the problem was not consider to be their phone because the BRAIN CANCER developed on the 'other side of their head' and was not associated with (their particular model) of cell phone . I have personally used the speaker phone at a distance since reading that Siemens flip phone manual , believe or not , your choice I guess , regards and good health .

kmos17 · Answer

I get them too, that&rsquo;s why I use headphones.