Well, I am not an expert on this diagnosis. My only qualification is being female and experiencing some years of very bad PMS. I was already taking antidepressant medication, so I never sought help for the problem, which in hindsight, was probably a mistake.

I did eventually use non-prescription bioidentical progesterone cream on the recommendation of a psychiatric nurse practitioner.

The level of irritability that you're describing doesn't sound like it would be expected to escalate into violence.

I'm going to list a couple of links here that discuss non-drug treatment for PMDD. There are so many recommendations in the two articles that it would be pick and choose for me if I was considering them.

I think it's better to try some treatment rather than to just hope for the best. That doesn't necessarily mean a prescription medication.


Severe PMS and PMDD Treatments

Dr. Mark Hyman

As far as telling a boss, I suppose my instinct is not to tell unless the problem is already affecting work performance and it's being treated or is going to be treated very soon.

When I would have a discussion like that with a boss, I would tell them what health problems I was having (diagnosis and symptoms that were affecting work performance). Then I would say that I was seeing a doctor and being treated.

If I felt like my work performance was not going to be adequate because of the problem, I would ask if an accommodation was possible.

So, based on the information in your post, I'd say probably a "no" on telling the boss. Of course, that depends somewhat on the type of boss. I have chronic health problems and have had to have these types of discussions with bosses in the past.

I always had the kind of boss who, although super nice, would have asked "why are you telling me this?" if I had started telling him about a health problem without a reason other than just to let him know. He really only wanted to know if there was a good reason that he needed to know. Other bosses may be more open to the discussion (or less.)

Sometimes if it's not clear whether a boss should be informed about a health problem, it's good to ask if there is a policy about that. Also, if we're talking about a large company with Human Resources personnel, it's good to find out beforehand if there are policies about what types of things they have to be in the loop on.