Did Eric Adams Get a Colonoscopy? His Answer Led to Confusion.

It seemed like the mystery surrounding Mayor Eric Adams’s health-related absence from the public eye had been solved.

More than a week after announcing in a late-night social media post that Mr. Adams, the Democratic mayor of New York, had not been feeling well and would keep a limited public schedule while undergoing routine tests, City Hall officials said on Wednesday that the mayor had undergone a colonoscopy.

The acknowledgment came hours after Mr. Adams had finally shed some light on his absence, disclosing at his weekly media briefing that he had been placed under anesthesia last week but was fine.

“I was feeling real pain in my side,” the mayor said on Wednesday. “Not many things scare me, but I was concerned when the doctor said, ‘Eric, I want you to take a series of tests.’”

But after a reporter later questioned the timing of the mayor’s colonoscopy on social media, a spokeswoman said Mr. Adams had misspoken.

The mayor had indeed undergone a colonoscopy, where he was placed under anesthesia, she said, but that took place on Jan. 3 and not last week.

The actual reason for the mayor’s absence last week was a spate of medical tests that included an M.R.I.; a test for Helicobacter pylori, an infection that causes stomach ulcers; and other blood work, the spokeswoman, Kayla Mamelak Altus, said.

Ms. Altus said the mayor’s doctors had told him to take it easy. Mr. Adams had said earlier that his son, Jordan Coleman, had told him to “hit pause” on his daily activities.

The secrecy and confusion over the mayor’s health only added to the bizarre turn that Mr. Adams’s first term in office has taken. The mayor is facing a five-count federal corruption indictment and is scheduled to stand trial in April. But amid Mr. Adams’s prolonged and continued outreach to President Trump, Justice Department officials met last week to discuss dropping the charges.

His disclosure that he had undergone anesthesia also brought complaints from Jumaane Williams, the public advocate, who is next in the city’s line of succession. Mr. Williams accused Mr. Adams of violating the City Charter because Mr. Williams’s office had not been notified that the mayor was incapacitated.

“He has long demonstrated a tendency to test how far he can go in bending or breaking rules, and this is a clear example,” Mr. Williams said in a statement, calling the incident the “latest evidence of the mayor ignoring city regulations to suit his own purposes.”

According to the charter, the public advocate becomes the acting mayor in the event of the “mayor’s temporary inability to discharge the powers and duties of the office of mayor by reason of sickness or otherwise.”

Mr. Adams said that Maria Torres-Springer, his first deputy mayor, had assumed those powers for the brief time he was under anesthesia. Ms. Altus said the mayor had not violated the charter.

John Kaehny, the executive director of Reinvent Albany, a good-government group, said he agreed with the mayor. The process of the public advocate’s assuming control of the government involves a vote by a committee made up of five elected officials and high-ranking city government officials and a wait of 48 hours, he said.

Mr. Kaehny said it would have been helpful if the mayor had been more transparent about what was happening.

“You would think,” Mr. Kaehny said. “But it’s all drama, all the time, from Eric.”