(Natural News) Some medication side effects are easier to ignore than others. You might be willing to overlook the occasional headache, for example, but a bacterial infection that eats away at the flesh of your genitals? That's a dealbreaker for most people.

It sounds like the kind of obscure side effects you might expect from a specialist medicine for a very rare disease, but the illness known as necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum is actually a potential side effect of several widely used diabetes medications. Now, the FDA is warning patients and doctors about this highly concerning problem, which is also known as Fournier's gangrene.

The drugs that have been linked to the illness belong to a class of medications known as SGLT2 inhibitors and include Eli Lilly and Co.'s Jardiance, Farxiga from AstraZeneca Plc, and Invokana from Johnson & Johnson. In total, the FDA's list contains more than 12 medications that will be required to carry a warning about the serious infection.

These drugs work by lowering the body's blood sugar level through the kidneys; the excess sugar is then excreted from the body via urine. One common side effect of these medications is urinary tract infection.