An apt analogy would be if your husband/wife threatens divorce because you left socks on the floor. Even if you don't mind picking them up, or were planning to already, it is shocking and damaging that they would go straight to the nuclear option.
Flip-flopping on the issue almost makes it worse. If you were willing to fire/divorce me yesterday, and don't care about the issue today, how much do you really value me and our ongoing partnership.
they never cared. You can like your job, you can love it. You can feel valued and like you contribute but its just a job, and they will drop you faster than you'll drop them.
We should expect somebody being coerced by an authority figure to undergo an unwanted medical procedure, especially when that individual's livelihood is being threatened, to find it to be an emotionally traumatic experience, regardless of how severe the coercion is.
The situation can easily be made worse when the procedure may have unknown harmful side effects, and when it comes out of the blue.