Decline of the twinning rate in Brazil.

The twinning rate during a twenty-year period (1965-1985) was investigated at five-year intervals in four Brazilian hospitals. During this period the twinning rate has decreased significantly (from 10.68% to 8.11%), being highly negatively correlated with the five-year intervals (r = -0.97). This change was due mainly to the decline in dizygotic twinning, since the incidence of DZ twins has fallen from around 7% in 1965 to around 3.6% in 1985. The detected decline in DZ twinning seems to be due to the remotion of the fertility advantage of the more fecundable DZ twin-prone women by the introduction of effective birth control at the present, while some other mechanisms are causing the decline irrespective of the type of twinning.