RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro, 64, underwent a vasectomy early Thursday night, January 30th, a medical procedure to sterilize men who no longer wish to have biological children.
The surgery was performed at the Armed Forces Hospital (HFA). This is the second time the president has undergone this procedure. He spent the afternoon on a trip to Minas Gerais, discussing measures to address the issue of the floods that are devastating the state. When he landed back in Brasília at 6 PM, the president headed straight to the HFA to have the surgery.
To have a vasectomy, one must be over 25 or have at least two children. The surgery may only be scheduled two months after the first medical appointment, a time for patients to decide if this is exactly what they want. With local anesthesia, the doctor performs two small incisions of one centimeter each and stops the semen crossing from the testicle to the prostate.
Unlike other times when he has undergone medical procedures, the Planalto has not issued an official note. The president’s assistants merely announced that the president had gone for examinations and the instructions were to keep the hospital stay confidential. When leaving the hospital, before 8:30 PM, the president made a point of walking to the car. He did this slowly and with one of his arms resting on an advisor.
Second time
During the presidential campaign in 2018, Bolsonaro posted a video in which he was shown alongside his daughter, Laura, now ten years old, and reported, in an emotional tone, that he had undone a vasectomy so that his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, could conceive. The then candidate’s statement was made at a time when a campaign entitled “Women United against Bolsonaro” was growing on the Internet, which at the time had the support of two million people.
In reaction to the movement, Bolsonaro recorded the video saying that he would “make a confession,” with his eyes brimming with tears. “I had already decided not to have any more children and was vasectomized. I had arranged this with my wife, who already had a daughter. I have a stepdaughter at home. My wife was a single mother. She even said, for the sake of maintaining the marriage, that the fulfillment of most women is to have children,” commented the candidate.
“And I went to the Army central hospital, undid the vasectomy. It changed my life a lot with Laura’s arrival, and I thank God and my wife for her”.
In the video, the president, who has five children, four men, and a girl, began by saying that “raising a man child is very easy. Go play ball with him, give him a cart, talk dirty too. When you see a woman, it’s different. It’s completely different”.
Rest
Today, his schedule is free of official commitments, although he may meet with the Presidential Chief of Staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, who was on vacation in the United States and anticipated his return. Although the Planalto reports that the president does not intend to meet the minister today because he will be resting, Onyx hopes to be able to talk to him and discuss his situation, which became delicate after the crisis that led to the resignation of his number two, Jose Vicente Santini, as a result of the use of an FAB jet to travel to Davos and New Delhi.
Also yesterday, because of the previously scheduled procedure, Bolsonaro announced hours before returning to Brasília that he would not do the weekly broadcast on social media where he discusses government affairs.
Health
In December last year, Bolsonaro had already been hospitalized after falling in the bathroom of the Alvorada Palace. At the time, he remained under observation for approximately one day, after banging his head, and was discharged without complications. On the same day, the president gave an interview to the program ‘Brasil Urgente’ and told the host José Luiz Datena that he had suffered partial loss of memory. The Alvorada bathroom underwent safety adjustments after the fall.
The president has been facing health issues since he was the target of a knife attack during the election campaign in September 2018. Since then, he has undergone four surgeries. The last, in September 2019, doctors corrected a hernia that emerged under the scar from previous surgeries to where he had been stabbed. The procedure consisted of placing the portion of the intestine that “escaped”, forming the hernia, and the placement of a screen to strengthen the muscle wall in the abdomen, to prevent reoccurrences.
Source: Estadão