When doctors informed Goran Sadiq that he wass infertile, he sought out multiple diagnosis by experts and spent significant amounts of money on consultations both locally and abroad.
Sadiq, 34, got married a decade ago and received a diagnosis of infertility. While medical professionals attribute infertility to factors like climate change and rising temperatures, Goran remains unconvinced. "My greatest desire is to become a father and experience paternal love, but I am ill and unable to reproduce," he lamented. "Tests have shown that the issue lies with me, and I am no longer able to have children."
Medical experts suggest that high temperatures are one of the leading causes of infertility. The United Nations ranks Iraq fifth among countries most affected by climate change, with rising temperatures contributing significantly.
Ahmad Nihad, a specialist in kidney, urinary tract, and prostate diseases, highlighted the adverse effects of heat on male fertility, such as sperm thickening due to heat and sweating, which impairs sperm motility and the ability to reach the ovaries.
"The normal body temperature is 38 degrees Celsius, but because men's testicles are outside of the body, it is more exposed to heat, and often two to four times higher than the temperature inside men," he said.
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Goran lives in Kirkuk, where temperatures soared to 50 degrees Celsius last year, exacerbating his condition as a blacksmith.
Gynecologist and obstetrician Sumaya Ata shared that men working in occupations like bakeries and chemical factories often experience infertility due to heat exposure.
"Excessive heat causes DNA damage. This has the biggest impact on reducing the chances of having children," he said.
“My mental state was getting worse and worse, until people told me that I had a demon in my soul,” he said. Goran's belief in the story led him to visit the sheikh and beat him with a stick.
The decrease in greenery and rising temperatures are directly correlated, with Kirkuk falling far below the international standard of 30% greenery in cities, at just 3%.
"In order to increase the greenery by 1 percent, we need to plant more than one million trees annually in the city," he said, but that is not easy, he said, due to the water shortage barrier,” said Shokofa Mohammed, president of a green Kurdistan organization.
With a population of 1.8 million, Kirkuk faces environmental pollution and rising temperatures due to
its numerous oil and gas fields and lack of green spaces, impacting fertility rates and contributing to infertility issues.
According to the Iraqi census, the fertility rate in Iraq is 3.9 and in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region IKR is 3,5%.
"The large number of oil and gas fields in Kirkuk and the lack of greenery are causing environmental pollution and rising temperatures in the province, which has consequences and affects reproduction and infertility," she said.
