How Could a Diabetes Drug Cause Severe Genital Infections?

People with type 2 diabetes who take a certain class of drugs have a very troubling side effect to worry about: The drugs may increase the risk of the genitals becoming infected with "flesh-eating" bacteria.

On Wednesday (Aug. 29), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, which are commonly prescribed medications for treating type 2 diabetes. Over a five-year period, the drugs have been linked to a dozen rare cases of genital infections that cause the skin to die, a condition called necrotizing fasciitis. All 12 patients who developed the infection were hospitalized, and one died, according to the FDA.

More specifically, the drugs have been linked to cases of a flesh-eating bacteria infection that affects the perineum, or the area of skin between the anus and the vulva or scrotum. When this type of infection affects this part of the body, it's referred to as Fournier's gangrene, a rare but potentially fatal condition, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The infection is more common in men than women, and it can spread to other parts of the body, Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, told SELF. "It can rapidly progress and involve the entire genital area and even the abdominal wall," he said. [5 Ways Skin Can Signal Health Problems]

There have been enough instances of these severe infections that the FDA now requires all SGLT2 inhibitors to include a warning about this risk in their prescribing information. Medications in this class include canagliflozin, dapagliflozin, empagliflozin and ertugliflozin. The drugs are available as single-ingredient medications or in combinations, such as with metformin, the FDA said.