BBC Strictly Come Dancing star reveals hospital visits as she opens up on secret health battle

Montell Douglas, a former Strictly Come Dancing contestant and an Olympian, has recently spoken out about her long-standing hidden battle with severe period pain known as dysmenorrhoea. This condition had once hospitalised her and left the Gladiators star unable to walk.

The 39-year-old, who partnered with Johannes Radebe on Strictly last year and features as Fire on Gladiators, shared her experience of this harrowing health issue that began in her teenage years, reports the Express. She told Metro, as part of Holland and Barrett's campaign, how she concealed the pain for much of her athletic career: "I cannot remember not suffering.

"When mine came, I hid it for a long time because I didn't really know what was going on and I remember being in diabolical pain from the beginning."

Despite enduring excruciating pain, Montell persevered with rigorous training and competitions, keeping her ordeal under wraps until it became undeniable. She remarked on the extreme severity of her experience compared to others: "Obviously people say that you're going to be uncomfortable, but what I did notice was that I was severely in more pain than other people,"

She recounted a particularly distressing incident three years ago when an episode caught her off-guard at home: "I was in severe pain, doubled over, and it wouldn't go away.

"It made me really dizzy and pass out, and intermittently while I was waking up again and conscious, just in agony, I was on the phone to the hospital to try and get me an ambulance to A&E."

She was taken to hospital, suffering from dehydration and distress. "That was a wake-up call. It's not normal, I shouldn't really be hospitalised," she reflected on the incident.

Montell also recounted a time years before when she experienced such severe pain during a training exercise that she collapsed into the foetal position between sprints.

In time, Montell found a way to manage her symptoms with the help of a contraceptive implant – a choice she felt was driven by necessity rather than preference. "Having that wasn't really out of choice, it was like, 'This is the best option and you have to do something" she explained.

However, Montell's struggles with health didn't stop there. Her sporting career has been plagued by numerous injuries, including six hamstring tears within two years, a herniated disc at the age of 14, and a significant knee operation that resulted in three months without walking.

She also endured a severe injury where her hamstring was "pulled off the bone" just seven months prior to the Winter Olympics.

Even now, as she competes in the Gladiators arena, she said: "I've ruptured all of the ligaments in my ankles, every single one has gone. The last one went in my first series of Gladiators on the first day of training."

Despite these challenges, Montell has continued to persevere. Her participation in Strictly came as yet another testament to her resilience.