Image used for representational purposes. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Healthcare professionals in West Bengal are grappling with rising public health challenges, especially in female reproductive health, with the increasing impact of climate change. Gynaecologists practising in West Bengal cite environmental stressors such as malnutrition, prolonged exposure to high temperatures, poor air quality, and limited access to clean water behind reproductive health challenges in women, including irregular menstrual cycles, decreased fertility, and complications during pregnancy.  The impact has been described as most severe for women in rural areas and low-income communities, including Sunderbans in West Bengal, where the effects of climate change are often amplified by recurring natural calamities, limited access to healthcare, and poor living conditions. “Recurring natural disasters such as annual cyclones are especially common in an area like the Sunderbans. When you note the loss of livelihood and socioeconomic distress caused by natural disasters, mental stress becomes the immediate medical after effect,” Runu Bhattacharjee, senior gynaecologist and obstetrician with a practice of over five decades, said. Dr. Bhattacharjee said that high levels …