Strictly Come Dancing star and former Olympian Montell Douglas has bravely shared her long-standing battle with a severe health condition that once led to her being hospitalised and left unable to walk. The 39-year-old, who impressed audiences on Strictly alongside Johannes Radebe and now appears as Fire on Gladiators, has spoken out about her private fight with dysmenorrhoea – a condition characterised by intense menstrual pain. Montell disclosed that she's been coping with this since her teens, confessing to Metro during a Holland and Barrett campaign: "I cannot remember not suffering." She recounted how she initially kept her condition secret, saying: "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 through rigorous training and competitions, concealing her discomfort until it became unmanageable. "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 detailed. A harrowing incident three years ago marked a turning point for Montell when she found herself alone and in extreme pain at home. "I was in severe pain, doubled over, and it wouldn't go away," reports the Express . "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 severe 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 an earlier episode where intense pain during a training exercise caused her to collapse in the foetal position between sprints. In time, Montell found a way to manage her symptoms with a contraceptive implant – a choice she felt compelled to make out of 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". The athlete's health struggles continued to plague her career, marked by numerous injuries such as 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. Her challenges peaked with a devastating injury when her hamstring was "pulled off the bone" just seven months prior to the Winter Olympics. Now, even as she competes in the Gladiators arena, she disclosed: "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 hurdles, Montell has remained determined to persevere, with her participation in Strictly being yet another testament to her resilience. Strictly Come Dancing is available on BBC iPlayer