'Ovarian cancer never used to be much of a threat to young girls, especially girls who have not yet hit puberty and whose ovaries are still developing. But today, an increasing number of adolescent girls, including eight-year-old Natalie Cosman of Manchester, Connecticut, face what doctors are now calling ovarian germ cell tumors, or tumors that spawn unexpectedly inside young girls’ reproductive egg cells.

A recent ABC News report explains that in Natalie’s case, the disease began manifesting itself in the form of persistent stomach pains, symptoms that her doctors routinely dismissed as nothing more than constipation or a stomach bug. But after a while, Natalie’s pains grew so severe that her parents decided to take her to the emergency room, where an ultrasound revealed that the pains were the result of a small cyst in one of Natalie’s ovaries.'

Read more: Eight-Year-old Girl Battles Ovarian Cancer Before Ever Hitting Puberty: Are Vaccines, Hormones, and GMOs to Blame?