Until now, Mark Consuelos had quietly delayed an important medical decision — but weeks after his sudden disappearance from Live With Kelly and Mark, he’s finally telling the full story.

On Monday’s November 17 episode, Consuelos and wife Kelly Ripa opened the show by discussing “FOFO” — short for Fear of Finding Out. Ripa warned viewers that FOFO can be dangerous, especially when it comes to health. “There are things you can catch early,” she said, “but instead, people sometimes wait until it’s beyond repair.”

That’s when Consuelos revealed a personal admission for the first time: he had just undergone his first-ever colonoscopy a couple of weeks earlier — and at age 54, he admitted he was already late. (Medical experts recommend starting screenings at 45.)

“I kept putting it off,” Consuelos confessed. “But I finally did it.”

He recalled trying to stay awake during the procedure out of curiosity. “I wanted to see what it felt like,” he said — but the anesthesia quickly took over. When he woke up, his biggest concern wasn’t the results… it was not saying anything embarrassing in recovery.

“I didn’t want to say anything silly,” he said. “But I felt very rested.”

Still, self-control wasn’t easy. Consuelos joked that he nearly tried to play matchmaker between one of the nurses and his 22-year-old son Joaquin. “She was adorable,” he admitted. “I almost asked if she was single. I almost asked her age. But I stayed quiet.”

The studio audience erupted in applause, and executive producer Michael Gelman praised his restraint. Ripa quickly teased that such questions would have been “highly inappropriate.”

Later, she revealed what really happened once he got home.

“You came home hungry and wild,” Ripa laughed. “You told me, ‘There was a nurse. I almost set her up with Joaquin. But I kept my mouth shut. Aren’t you proud of me?’ And I thought, ‘Oh lord… he’s still medicated.’”

When asked about the actual medical results, Consuelos delivered the best news possible.

“I’m great,” he confirmed. “I don’t have to do that again for 10 years.”

Ripa couldn’t resist celebrating the moment with humor. “You have the best colon,” she joked. “The greatest colon anyone has ever seen. The colon of a much younger man.”

The revelation also helps explain why Consuelos was mysteriously absent from Live earlier this month. On November 3, Steve Patterson filled in beside Ripa, followed by announcer Déjà Vu on November 6. At the time, Ripa only hinted that her husband had been “traveling like crazy.”