HR help
talk with HR.......they are required to maintain confidentiality.....tell them that you prefer to not discuss your particular surgery as it is very personal......ask them how you should deal with this regarding your manager. LOL....let them think you're having a face lift, or breast reduction, or gender reassignment, or hair transplants...........anything.....keep them guessing.
Seriously, I don't think you are required to share specifics with your manager. I told people that I was having a hiatal hernia repair.....which happens to be true....I just didn't share the other information on my surgery.
Good friends are like stars.
You don't always see them but you always know they're there.
I agree -- go directly to HR and talk to them. I know workplaces can be different, but I submitted all my paperwork through our disability claims company and they informed HR who informed my manager of when I'd be off and when I'd return (even though I told him when I'd be out and when I'd return). The only person I had to give any specific procedural information to was our disability claims processing company.
While my boss is curious why I was out, he has never outright asked. The great part is that he is in a different city than I so by the next time I see him I will have dropped 20%-30% of my weight. He might figure it out then.