Pearl Pod LLC is based on technology developed by Veterinarian Carlos Gradil. His initial goal was to improve control of female horse behavior. Female horses can behave erratically during their mating season, which can be disturbing or even dangerous to riders. It may be true that, similar to women athletes, mares can experience a change in neuromuscular performance as a result of ligamentous laxity resulting from changes in reproductive hormone concentrations throughout an estrous cycle (Hewett, 2000). Additionally, actual ovarian pain manifested in the region of the epaxial muscles during the peri-ovulation period, termed “mittelschmerz” in women, should be considered as a potential reason for lameness or lack of performance in “misbehaving”mares expressing behavioral estrus.

The traditional remedy has been to insert a glass marble into the uterus, which stimulates progesterone secretion and calms behavior. But marbles require skill to retrieve, and their presence or absence can’t be easily detected.

Dr. Gradil has developed an elegant solution to this problem. He developed an intrauterine device (iUPOD®) made up of plastic-coated magnets, which self-assemble into a shape that keeps them from falling out, while at the same time their individually small size makes insertion and removal very easy. Their presence can be confirmed by ultrasound, or easier yet, they can be detected by simply holding a hand-held metal detector to the mare’s abdomen. At the end of the mating season the magnets can easily be retrieved from the uterus using a magnetic wand. The Pearl Pod iUPOD®s should be useful not only for behavior control, but also to allow horse breeders to synchronize horse ovulation for same-day artificial insemination.

Pearl Pod plans to develop modified devices that include traditional copper or progesterone-eluting coatings to make these iUPOD®s capable of providing reliable reversible contraception. Because of their simple design, ease of insertion, ease of removal and ease of detection, these devices could be used for controlling animal populations in the wild for example, feral equids, and to provide a non-surgical means of controlling fertility in pets. And these iUPOD®s would offer considerable advantages over currently-available human IUDs, which can be challenging to remove, sometimes requiring the device be torn from the uterus wall. In addition, over 100,000 IUDs in the U.S. fall out each year; current IUDs have a string coming out of the cervix to assure they are still there. The Pearl Pod iUPOD® would need no string, because it can provide a specially developed metal detector app to allow a woman to easily confirm the iUPOD® is still in place with her cell phone.