BBC Strictly Come Dancing star Montell Douglas' hidden health battle that left her in hospital

Strictly Come Dancing has brought back the sequins and sparkle to Saturday nights. But the celebrity contestants on the BBC One super-smash have all had their own trials to get to the dancefloor.

One of this year's crop of stars has revealed that she battled periods which were so painful she ended up in hospital. Montell Douglas is one of the early 'ones to watch' on the 20th series of the programme.

Paired with fan favourite Johannes Radebe, Montell's professional career as a sprinter and bobsledder has put the Olympian at the top of the heap in terms of fitness. And as a Gladiator Fire in the returning BBC One gameshow, she is definitely at the peak of physical fitness.

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But the 38-year-old former athlete has been candid about a massive battle she fought for years with her own body - extremely heavy and painful periods which have landed her in hospital. She has been open about her experiences to encourage other women with the same problem to seek support.

The sportswoman made history as the first British woman to compete in different sports at both the Summer and Winter Olympics for Team GB. And she admits, for a long time, believed her monthly misery was normal.

London-born Montell said: “I didn’t really moan about it, I didn’t really speak about it a lot. I thought it was something that maybe you just had to get on with and deal with.”

Her periods lasted a full seven days in her youth, with a heavy flow for four or five days, accompanied by severe pain. The pain was so bad she missed training sessions, particularly when she was a sprinter.

“Sometimes I just wouldn’t make training, because it would take me an extra hour to get ready because I’d have waves of intense pain that would stop me for a few minutes, and that just ended up taking so long, I’d be in so much pain. And when I had really intense running sessions, it would just not be a great idea to even partake in them,” she says.

Douglas also suffered from lax ligaments during her period, which could have led to injuries.

“I had to wear this special belt every month, because my pelvis would be so wobbly,” she explains. “When you’re sprinting at a high level, you can lose your stability, and you can’t afford to do that because you can get injured very easily, just because your body is reacting to the hormones.”

The former British record holder for the 100 metres competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Shortly afterwards, she changed disciplines and took up bobsleigh in 2016, for which she represented Team GB at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

“Luckily” her period didn’t fall during her Olympic competitions, she recalls. Although some female athletes will carry on taking the contraceptive pill without a break to delay having a period when competing, she says she has never done that.

“I really didn’t want to have to delay it and change my cycle – that was just a personal preference,” she says. “We get periods every month and you can’t keep doing that for the whole season – I can’t have six months of just constant delaying.

"At some point, I was going to have to race while I was on my period, so I had to find other ways to manage it.”

That management was with strong prescribed painkillers, but she needed to take them well in advance in order for them to be effective. A few years ago, after taking them too late, Douglas ended up in hospital.

“That hospitalisation for me was a kind of wake-up call,” she says. “My body just started convulsing, and I was almost passing out, because the pain was so intense.

“I was overheating because of the hormones – my body couldn’t control its temperature, and that in turn made me dehydrated. The pain was in waves, coming in like contractions.”

Douglas called an ambulance herself, and was put on a drip in hospital. As a result of the experience, she had contraceptive implants put in, and says they’ve made a big difference to the severity of her period pain.

“Since then, it’s been much more manageable in terms of the pain, and it just gave me some confidence in that when it comes, I’m not going to be at its beck and call. It’s something I can manage, rather than it managing me.”

Earlier this year she teamed up with Bupa Health Clinic on the launch of its ‘Period Plan’ service, telling young women: “Trust your gut – your feelings are valid. Don’t be afraid to say, ‘I’m struggling and I want to find out if there’s something I can do’, and then seek that help where you can."

“Trust your feelings that what you’re experiencing may or may not be the norm for other people, but you won’t know until you ask.”