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Comment by sdrothrock | Hacker News Reader

This blew my mind, because baths around 45-50 C (113-122 F) aren't uncommon at all in Japan, and bathing for a long time (relaxing, sleeping, reading, watching tv) every day is also not uncommon here... I wonder if that's been a factor leading to reduced birth rates in Japan.

I don't have time to search a lot for this, but I did find one study that pointed at reduced sperm quality in young men: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3641477/

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> because baths around 45-50 C (113-122 F) aren't uncommon at all in Japan

You are stretching it. Most hot onsen are above 40C but certainly not above 45 or close to 50. At 50 you feel like you are boiling. And even if the source is at 45 C you never sit right next to the source, a few meters away the temperature loses several degrees.

ANd people in Japan don't go to onsen every single day either. At home the usual temperature is rather 40~41.

> baths around 45-50 C

How do you endure that? When I was still young and lived with my parents we had a thermometer in the bath tub. Anything over 40 °C was torture. I don't think I ever managed anything above 42°C.

You don't endure that because his claim is unsubstantiated.

It seems to depend on a person. I was ok with over 40 C in winter in Iceland, but that involved moving between geo hot tubs and freezing air a few times - starting from 30C and going up. There was lots of warning signs around that pool though and not many people were happy to try.

I'd be afraid to do it regularly though... felt interesting / nice, but also "this is extreme, maybe I shouldn't be doing this".

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