A/HRC/32/44 policies and programmes is crucial for achieving gender equality and ensuring women’s and girl’s right to health and well-being. 25. Many drug therapy protocols and other medical treatments and interventions administered to women are based on research conducted on the male of the species without any investigation and adjustment for biological and gender differences. Equality requires the conduct of medical research on the basis of women’s experience and biological differences. It also requires adequate attention to be paid to the particular health risks to which women are disproportionately exposed, such as depression and suicide, and proper gender-sensitive treatment of diseases which tend to be considered, inaccurately, as typically masculine, such as cardiovascular diseases. 26. Women’s specific health and safety needs require protection against gender-based violence that affects their physical integrity and mental health, including in health-care settings. 27. The social, religious and cultural factors that disregard the dignity of girls and women must be tackled to achieve women’s right to equality in health and safety. C. Discriminatory practices 28. Discriminatory practices in the area of health and safety occur at all stages of women’s life cycle. Multiple discrimination merits particular consideration and remedies. Denying women access to services which only they require and failing to address their specific health and safety, including their reproductive and sexual health needs, are inherently discriminatory and prevent women from exercising control over their own bodies and lives. Gender-based discrimination in the administration of medical services also violates women’s human rights and dignity. 29. Denial of access to essential health services with respect to termination of pregnancy, contraception, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and infertility treatment has particularly serious consequences for women’s health and lives. Women may be denied such services through criminalization, reduction of availability, stigmatization, deterrence or derogatory attitudes of health-care professionals. In reality, denial of access drives service provision underground into the hands of unqualified practitioners. This exacerbates the risks to the health and safety of the affected women. Persistently high maternal mortality rates often reflect a lack of investment in and underprioritization of services required only by women 30. Discrimination is sometimes manifested in humiliating treatment women that may face in facilities that are dedicated exclusively to them, such as birthing facilities where, as repeatedly stressed by United Nations human rights mechanisms and WHO, they are too often subjected to degrading and sometimes violent treatment. 31. Discrimination against women is also manifest in the unequal provision of health services required by both women and men. This has been especially severe in countries where women have been excluded from receiving medical treatment by male doctors on the grounds of “modesty”. 32. Discriminatory laws and practices have contributed to a deplorable global situation with respect to women’s health and safety which calls for urgent, immediate and effective actions. According to WHO, an estimated 225 million women are deprived of access to essential modern contraception. Pregnancy and childbirth-related complications resulted in the deaths of almost 300,000 women worldwide in 2013. About 22 million unsafe abortions take place annually and an estimated 47,000 women die from complications resulting from unsafe abortion each year. Breast and cervical cancer remain the leading cancers among 7