Jardiance (empagliflozin) 10 mg causes side effects in a meaningful number of users, with urinary tract infections and genital yeast infections being the most frequently reported. In clinical trials, about 9.3% of people taking the 10 mg dose developed a urinary tract infection, compared to 7.6% on placebo. Most side effects are mild to moderate, but a few rare reactions carry serious health risks worth understanding before you start the medication.
Jardiance works by causing your kidneys to flush excess sugar out through your urine. That sugar-rich urine is the root cause of several of the drug’s most common side effects, since it creates an environment where bacteria and yeast thrive more easily.
Urinary Tract Infections
UTIs are the single most common side effect at the 10 mg dose. The risk isn’t equal between sexes: in pooled clinical trials, 18.4% of women on Jardiance 10 mg experienced a UTI, compared to 16.6% on placebo. For men, the numbers were much lower, at 3.6% versus 3.2% on placebo. That means the drug modestly increases a risk that’s already higher for women to begin with.
Typical UTI symptoms include burning during urination, frequent urges to go, cloudy or strong-smelling urine, and pelvic discomfort. Staying well hydrated can help reduce your risk, and most UTIs that develop during Jardiance use respond to standard antibiotic treatment.
Genital Yeast Infections
Because Jardiance dumps extra glucose into your urine, the warm, moist environment of the genital area becomes more hospitable to fungal overgrowth. In clinical trials of the 10 mg dose, 5.4% of women and 3.1% of men developed genital yeast infections. These rates are notably higher than what was seen with placebo.
For women, this can show up as vulvovaginal itching, irritation, or unusual discharge. For men, it typically appears as redness, swelling, or itching of the foreskin or head of the penis (a condition called balanitis). Good hygiene, keeping the area dry, and wearing breathable underwear can lower the odds. Over-the-counter antifungal treatments usually resolve these infections, though recurring episodes may need a conversation with your prescriber about whether the medication is still the right fit.
Dehydration and Low Blood Pressure
Jardiance is a mild diuretic. It increases urine volume and the frequency of bathroom trips, which means your body loses more fluid than usual. For most people this is manageable, but certain groups face a higher risk of becoming dehydrated or developing drops in blood pressure: adults over 65, people already taking blood pressure medications or water pills, those on a low-sodium diet, and anyone with reduced kidney function.
Symptoms of volume depletion include dizziness, lightheadedness, or feeling faint when you stand up. In more significant cases, you might feel weak or notice your heart racing. If you’re sick with vomiting or diarrhea, or you’re spending extended time in the heat, the risk goes up because you’re already losing fluids through other routes. Drinking enough water throughout the day is one of the simplest ways to prevent this side effect.
Initial Kidney Function Changes
When you first start Jardiance, your kidney filtration rate typically dips by about 6%, which translates to roughly a 2 mL/min/1.73 m² decrease. This happens within the first two months and can look alarming on lab work, but it reflects a change in pressure inside the kidney’s filtering units rather than actual kidney damage. After that initial adjustment, the filtration rate stabilizes and, in longer-term studies, the drug actually slows the decline in kidney function over time.
Your prescriber will likely check your kidney labs before starting Jardiance and again after a few months. That early dip is expected and, on its own, is not a reason to stop the medication.
Ketoacidosis With Normal Blood Sugar
One of the more dangerous, though uncommon, side effects is a condition called euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis. Normally, ketoacidosis drives blood sugar very high, which serves as an obvious warning sign. Jardiance can trigger a version where your blood becomes dangerously acidic while your blood sugar stays below 200 mg/dL, or even in a normal range. That makes it easy to miss.
Warning signs include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, unusual fatigue, loss of appetite, and shortness of breath. The critical thing to know is that a normal reading on your glucose meter or continuous glucose monitor does not rule this out. If you feel generally unwell with several of these symptoms at once, especially during illness, after surgery, or if you’ve been eating very little, checking for ketones with a urine strip can help catch it early. This is a medical emergency that requires hospital treatment.
Fournier’s Gangrene
In 2018, the FDA issued a safety warning linking all drugs in Jardiance’s class to Fournier’s gangrene, a rare but life-threatening infection of the skin and tissue in the genital and perineal area. The warning was based on 12 confirmed cases reported across all drugs in this class over a five-year period, so the absolute risk is extremely low. Still, it’s worth knowing the signs: rapidly spreading redness, swelling, or tenderness in the genital area, often with fever and a general feeling of being very unwell. This requires immediate emergency care.
How 10 mg Compares to 25 mg
Jardiance is available in both 10 mg and 25 mg strengths. In large safety analyses, the overall rate of side effects leading people to stop the drug was no higher for either Jardiance dose than for placebo. Some specific side effects do show slight dose-related patterns. For example, UTI rates at the 25 mg dose (7.6%) were actually lower than at 10 mg (9.3%) in pooled trials, while genital infections trended slightly higher at the stronger dose. In practical terms, the safety profiles of the two strengths are similar, and starting at 10 mg gives your body a chance to adjust before any dose increase.
Side Effects That Tend to Ease Over Time
Increased urination is one of the first things people notice, often within the first day or two. For most users, the frequency and urgency settle down within a few weeks as your body adjusts to the new fluid balance. Mild dizziness related to blood pressure changes also tends to improve as your system recalibrates, particularly if you stay on top of hydration.
Yeast infections and UTIs, on the other hand, can recur at any point during treatment because the underlying mechanism (higher glucose in urine) doesn’t go away. If you find yourself dealing with repeated infections, that’s a pattern worth discussing with your healthcare provider rather than simply treating each episode individually.