A new study has come to the surprising conclusion that infertile women are much better off with fresh donor eggs rather than frozen eggs for in vitro fertilization (IVF), a result that has surprised scientists, as we reported earlier. But why are these new findings such a big deal?

The main reason is that the popularity of frozen eggs has been rising dramatically in recent years, which makes sense because in the past women who have depended on fresh donor eggs have had to wait — potentially months — for exactly the right timing. But frozen eggs have given them the opportunity to choose from a wider field of donors and operate on their own schedule, to the point that IVF centers have even created frozen egg banks just for that purpose, according to media reports.

However, although frozen eggs remain a perfectly viable way to do IVF, the new study puts a bit of a damper on those who choose that route: a study by the Center for Human Reproduction in New York City that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that out of about 11,000 IVF procedures — a fifth of which involved frozen eggs — the fresh eggs bested frozen eggs in live birth rates by 56 to 47 percent, a fairly significant difference. It indicates that those who are thinking about going the frozen eggs route should think long and hard about their decision.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean fresh eggs are always the best route — it’s just that infertile women will need to choose between the convenience and flexibility of frozen eggs and the difficulty of fresh eggs, with the greatly improved success rate. Some might choose the former.

IVF involved eggs from a donor that are fertilized with sperm from the recipient’s partner. The eggs are then deposited in the uterus of the recipient.