Strictly Come Dancing's Montell Douglas was taken to hospital after having convulsions due to period pain

The 38-year-old, who appears on Strictly Come Dancing tonight, was also Fire in the rebooted Gladiators, which was shown earlier this year. But despite being superfit, she had no defence against severe period pains which saw her hospitalised.

Montell, who is the first woman to compete in different sports at the summer and winter Olympics, spoke on Good Morning Britain about her experience. "That hospitalisation for me was a kind of wake-up call," she said, as reported by OK. "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."

She is now an ambassador for Bupa about the condition - dysmenorrhoea. She has spoken up to urge women to get help for painful, heavy or irregular periods, after she found that her life was seriously disrupted every month.

On GMB she said: “I’m going to be really honest about it as I think it's something we really need to talk about more the agonising pain... not many people and not all women will experience the same thing.

"It can be really defeating, there have been times in my sporting career and also being doubled over with pain, lying doubled over in pain in bed, or if I've made it to the track to train I'm just lying on the floor. The waves are so intense, not only are you focusing on what you're trying to do, which is always high level, it's very distracting. Often, I can't actually do the task I'm meant to do so I can't do a duel, I can't run, the pain of doing my sport is bad enough without having to think about that and challenge that."

After her spell in hospital, which involved an intravenous drip, Montell had contraceptive implants which she says eased her period pains. "Since then, it's been much more manageable in terms of the pain,” she said. "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."

Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC1 at 7pm tonight.