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Hot weather is associated with fewer babies being born in France and Italy, according to two new studies. Each day with an average temperature of 25°C (77 degrees Fahrenheit) or above was linked to about 360 fewer births in France and about 192 fewer in Italy.

The drop shows up nine to 10 months after exposure to the hot weather. That timing points to fewer conceptions during warm months.

Hot weather can harm reproductive health in both men and women, which could mean fewer pregnancies. It may also change people's sexual behavior, and both explanations are possible.

France and Italy are not the first places where researchers have spotted this. Similar studies in the U.S., South Korea, Spain and across Europe have also found a link between hot weather and fewer births. As the evidence builds, it looks less like the quirk of a couple of countries.

Earlier studies in the U.S. and Hungary found that some of the missing births were "caught up" in the months after the dip, as if couples had simply put off having a baby. But the French and Italian studies see no sign of this, so some births in these two countries may be lost for good instead of moving to another time of year.

Italy and France already have falling birth rates, so each lost birth is consequential.

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