Rising temperatures could further reduce S'pore’s fertility rate, which dipped to below 1 in 2023.
SINGAPORE – Punishing hot weather affects not only a person’s health or work productivity but also affects couples’ fertility and birth outcomes, a project by the National University of Singapore found.which dipped below 1 – a record low – in 2023.Researchers from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine studied sperm samples from 818 men that were already stored at the National University Hospital’s andrology section.
These findings were more pronounced for men between the ages of 25 and 35, who tend to be at the stage of entering fatherhood, said research fellow Samuel Gunther, one of the researchers in the team. “So just because you’re a young male, don’t think you’re invincible, and don’t think you’re not also vulnerable to these impacts. Moving forward, the climate is going to get hotter. And that is also something that we need to bear in mind in family planning.”
However, the links between extreme heat and fertility have not been well studied in tropical countries such as Singapore, added Dr Gunther. The fertility study also scanned the birth records of more than 31,000 women, showing that pregnant women tend to take more protective measures, such as ramping up air-conditioning.
Other HeatSafe projects involved profiling the heat strain risk of about 160 construction workers through temperature pills, chest straps, skin temperature buttons and smartwatches. Among the 160, four of them showed signs linked to heat strain.