Medical-regulatory and anti-doping analysis
§10 — Medical-regulatory and anti-doping analysis
Lives in: Phase 1 §12 (entire). Self-contained; nothing to merge.
The finding, reproduced because its precision is the point: somatropin therapy began January 1997 (height ~1.25–1.27 m at age 9; partial GH deficiency; one injection per day). No precise calendar end-date exists from Schwarzstein — he commits only to "more than three years"/"four years" and to cessation once growth concluded. Start + 3–4 years implies ~2000–2002, with a Barcelona-covered tail of a reported 6–8 months. The commonly cited "until age 16 / ~2003" is not a Schwarzstein statement; the "16" ceiling appears only in unsourced aggregation.
hGH prohibited status by year: prohibited in sport since the late 1980s (IOC and IFs). WADA founded 1999; the first WADA Prohibited List took effect 1 January 2004, listing hGH from its first edition. Detection: no validated hGH test existed during the treatment years — the isoform immunoassay arrived at Athens 2004 (first positive under it: 2010); the GH-2000/GH-2004 biomarker test at London 2012. TUE regime: formalised in the WADA Code (adopted 2003, effective 2004); a legitimate GH-deficiency diagnosis is the paradigm TUE case; the pre-2004 regime recognised bona fide medical use without a harmonised standard.
The crux: Messi's La Liga debut was 16 October 2004. On the evidence, the therapy concluded (or was concluding) around 2001–2002 — before he entered senior regulated competition. On the retrieved record, the therapy did not overlap with his senior professional career.
Stated plainly, per the living-persons rule: there is no official anti-doping violation and no credible accusation on record. RR-06 ("steroids/doping helped Messi") is classified Unsupported or false. The prescribing physician has characterised the therapy as ordinary paediatric endocrine replacement. Absence of evidence is stated as absence of evidence, not spun into implication.
Figures and drift (preserved as drift, not smoothed): ~US$1,300/month (AFP 2014 — best-attributed) vs "$900/month" (aggregator). ~1,400 injections (Caioli). "70% completed in Argentina" (2014) → "80%" (2022) → "Barcelona ~20%" (2026). "$35,000 total" and "two injections/day" are aggregator constructs, not physician statements — the latter directly contradicts Schwarzstein's consistent one-per-day.