A six-year-old transgender girl who tried to tear off her penis and refused to drink water to avoid using the boys’ toilet at school, has now began her transition.

Now known as Briella, the pupil from Melbourne was diagnosed with gender dysphoria last September after her parents sought help when she asked to live as a girl.

“Once she asked if she was going to grow up and look like her dad with facial hair,” her mother, Kirra Carmichael, told the Australian Daily Mail.

“She was hysterical and uncontrollably crying when I said yes.

“She would ask ‘why wasn’t I born a girl?’ and ‘will my willy go away?'”

Mrs Carmichael said she finally decided to seek help when her daughter tried to self-harm.

She said: “She tried to harm herself downstairs and I don’t know how long for.

“She tried to rip her penis off and it swelled up and got infected.”

“She was also off school for a week for being dehydrated,” added Mrs Carmichael.

“She stopped drinking because she didn’t want to use the boy’s toilets and was so dehydrated her lips were all chapped.”

After attending transgender information sessions and visiting a gender specialist, Briella’s parents started her transition.

Along with staff at Cranbourne South Primary School, they helped Briella make the changes to make her comfortable and introduced a safe schools programme, to educate her classmates about LGBT issues.

Mrs Carmichael said the next step for them is to have their daughter’s name legally changed, but admitted it’s going to be difficult.

She added that although she knows there is “no going back”, she won’t speak about other options – such as hormone therapy – until Briella is older.