European Championships bronze medallist Helle Simonsen of Denmark has tested positive for a banned substance ©Getty Images

European Championships bronze medallist Helle Simonsen of Denmark has tested positive for a banned substance after she took a herbal remedy as a pregnancy aid, it has been announced.

Simonsen, a member of the Danish team which finished third at the 2007 European Championships in Füssen in Germany, has polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which causes an imbalance in hormones.

The 31-year-old, also a World Junior Championships bronze medallist, returned a positive test following the European Championships event on home ice in Esbjerg last November.

She took the substance to help her get pregnant, the Danish Curling Federation (DCF) has claimed.

Simonsen, who represented Denmark at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, has been provisionally suspended from competing under the matter is resolved.

The matter has now been passed to the World Curling Federation.

Denmark's European Championships bronze medallist Helle Simonsen claims she took the herbal substance as a pregnancy aid because she suffers from PCOS ©Getty Images
Denmark's European Championships bronze medallist Helle Simonsen claims she took the herbal substance as a pregnancy aid because she suffers from PCOS ©Getty Images

The DCF  claim, though, Simonsen was not aware that it was on the banned list and that it was not “taken with performance in mind”.

“Helle Simonsen has a hormonal disorder called PCOS and has thereby taken some herbal remedies to achieve a normal hormonal balance in the spirit of wanting a pregnancy,” the DCF said.

“One of the substances in the preparation is on the doping list.

“Helle has not been aware that the drug was on the list.

“It is not taken with the performance promotion in mind, and she is very sorry for what has happened.”

The DCF has said Simonsen’s positive test will not affect the Danish team’s fourth-place result at last year’s European Championships.

The most high-profile doping case in curling came in 2013 when Canadian World Championships silver medallist Matt Dumontelle was given a two-year suspension for testing positive for banned substance methandienone, an anabolic steroid.