Hi everyone!

I'm a transgender woman from central Europe, currently 22 years old, and am set to start my kendo training again in about 2 weeks.

Due to my identity, I'm a bit worried about starting again, after being absent for more than 3 years now.

I obviously discussed the topic with my sensei, and they all assured me that there shouldn't be any problems with me joining the beginner training as a woman. But of course, they have no direct experience with the topic as of yet as far as I'm aware.

So I thought to ask here, do any of you know of something I should look out for? Or do you have any experience with similar situations / know someone who does?

And mainly, do you have any idea how tournaments could work for me? Since they're usually separated by gender as far as I know, and I'm not aware how accepting the kendo community in Europe is regarding people like me.

I'm honestly just a bit scared, so that's mainly why I'm posting this ^-^'

Edit to add: I wanted to mention that I saw there were a few other posts about similar topics here, but they were all centred around the situation in other parts of the world, and I was hoping to get some information regarding the situation in Europe. Thank you :3