Empagliflozin

Key facts

• Empagliflozin (sold as Jardiance) is an SGLT2 inhibitor. It blocks glucose reabsorption in the kidneys, so excess sugar passes out in your urine instead of staying in the blood.
• You take it once daily, with or without food. Beyond diabetes, it's also used for heart failure and chronic kidney disease because of the extra fluid and blood-pressure benefits.
• It commonly causes genital yeast infections in both women and men, since sugar in the urine feeds fungal growth. Rarely, it can cause euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis, a dangerous buildup of ketones that can occur even when your blood sugar reading looks normal.
• Seek urgent care for nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, or unusual fatigue, even if a home glucose check looks fine, and for any severe or spreading genital infection.

What empagliflozin treats

Empagliflozin lowers blood sugar in type 2 diabetes. It's also prescribed for heart failure, with reduced or preserved pumping function, whether or not you have diabetes, and for chronic kidney disease to slow the loss of kidney function over time.

How empagliflozin works

A protein called SGLT2 in the kidney normally pulls filtered glucose back into the blood. Empagliflozin blocks it, so more glucose, along with some sodium and water, leaves the body in urine. This lowers blood sugar and gives a mild diuretic effect that helps the heart and kidneys.

Before you take it

• Avoid empagliflozin if you have type 1 diabetes or a history of diabetic ketoacidosis.
• Avoid it in pregnancy and breastfeeding, since safety hasn't been established.
• Tell your prescriber about kidney impairment, low blood pressure, recurrent genital or urinary infections, or use of diuretics, all of which raise your risk of side effects.
• Pause empagliflozin before major surgery and during illness with vomiting, poor food or fluid intake, or fasting, then restart once you're eating and drinking normally, as your prescriber advises.

Side effects

Common effects include passing more urine, increased thirst, genital yeast infections, and mild urinary tract infections.

Stop and seek urgent medical care for any of these:

• Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, or unusual tiredness, even with a normal-looking blood sugar reading, which can signal euglycemic ketoacidosis.
• Dizziness, fainting, or a rapid heartbeat from dehydration or low blood pressure.
• Fever, spreading redness, swelling, or severe pain around the genitals or perineum, a rare but serious infection.
• Sudden drop in urine output or flank pain.

Safety essentials

• Because empagliflozin can cause ketoacidosis without high blood sugar to warn you, treat nausea, vomiting, or unexplained fatigue as an emergency rather than waiting for a high glucose reading.
• Watch for genital itching, discharge, or soreness and treat yeast infections promptly; they're the most common reason people stop the drug.
• Pause the medicine during illness, vomiting, reduced fluid intake, or before scheduled surgery, and restart only once you're eating and drinking normally again.

This page is educational and does not replace advice from a doctor or pharmacist who knows your health history.