Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2014
The study of Italian Vital Statistics, from 1957 to 1966, reveals various classes of fertility (sterility, infertility, mean fertility, hyperfertility) and the curve of fertility in the woman's biological time. The study of lying-in women in Obstetrics Departments also yields data revealing an interaction between class and moment of fertility. The study of the Mendel Institute's twin file finally yields data stressing the existence of a relation between hyperfertility and multiple births. Endocrine fertility may thus be considered as genetically conditioned, and multiple births as an epiphenomenon of the hyperfertile class.
Paper presented at the 6th World Congress of Fertility and Sterility - Tel Aviv, May 20-27, 1968.