First of all, the heads of epee and foil are flat, not sharp, and will not cause puncture injury to human body. Most sabre movements are splits, and the head bends backwards, which will not cause harm.

Then your own protective equipment is complete, and there are protective plates in the protective clothing to protect your trunk. Protective clothing, as its name implies, protects you to a certain extent.

Needless to say, goggles (helmets) must be worn, although they look no different from football socks (if you accidentally prick your leg in actual combat, you will get hurt if you don't wear them).

Of course, what I am talking about is to ensure that it will not cause serious harm to the body under normal actual combat conditions.

If you really fight in actual combat, if your opponent is strong and stabbed in an unguarded place (such as arms and legs), it is still possible to cause bruises and skin damage. Under normal circumstances, the possibility of bleeding is extremely small.

Also, be careful not to turn your back on your opponent, because the defender only plays a positive and lateral protection role (of course, this behavior is also a foul)

The above is only for normal ordinary actual combat. If the sword is interrupted in actual combat, it may still be seriously injured (I personally experienced several times when the sword was broken during stabbing, although it did not cause any harm, it is still worth noting in theory)

In short, in any case, you should wear all the equipment in actual combat. After all, any sport is dangerous. Since protective equipment exists, it must be effective.