Verscienta
CV5

Shimen

Star

石門 (Shímén) — Stone Gate

Ren (Conception) channel · point 5

Not yet clinically reviewed

Front-Mu point of the Triple Energiser

Traditionally used for

  • Digestion
  • Bowel health
  • Urinary & fluids
  • Menstrual & women's health

Cautions & contraindications

  • Pregnancy
  • No moxibustion

Location

On the lower abdomen, on the anterior midline, 2 cun below the umbilicus.

How to locate: With the patient supine, divide the midline from the centre of the umbilicus to the upper border of the pubic symphysis into 5 proportional cun rather than using finger widths; the point is 2 cun below the umbilicus, level with KI14 and ST27.

Distances are in cun, a proportional unit — how to measure.

Body map, front: CV5 · Lower abdomen
Fig. — CV5 · Lower abdomen After Albinus, 1747
Body map, front: CV5 · Lower abdomen

CV5 · Lower abdomen · Albinus, Tabulae sceleti et musculorum, 1747

The abdominal regions — Gray's Anatomy plate
The abdominal regions Gray's Anatomy, 1918
The abdominal regions — Gray's Anatomy plate

The abdominal regions · Gray's Anatomy, 1918

3D view

3D view not available for this point: its position on the 3D model couldn't be checked against its location text, so it is not shown. The 2D maps above show it.

Needling

Cited needling

  • Pregnancy: contraindicated
  1. Perpendicular insertion
    Depth 0.8–1.5 cun
    skindeeper

Traditionally forbidden in pregnancy (at least before 37 weeks). Carr (2015) reviewed the trials and found no objective evidence of harm from needling these points; the prohibition is traditional, not evidence-based.

Depths describe average adult habitus in the cited population, never a single safe number for the patient in front of you. Palpate and adjust.

Sources (3)
  1. Carr DJ. The safety of obstetric acupuncture: forbidden points revisited. Acupunct Med. 2015;33(5):413-419 — Identifying sources of concern and relevant outcomes Supports: pregnancy (names this point)
  2. World Health Organization. Guidelines on basic training and safety in acupuncture. Geneva: WHO; 1999. WHO/EDM/TRM/99.1 — Section II §2.1 (Pregnancy), p. 20 Supports: pregnancy (names this region)
  3. Deadman P, Al-Khafaji M, Baker K. A Manual of Acupuncture. Hove: Journal of Chinese Medicine Publications; 1998 — p. 503 Supports: techniques (names this point)

Site notes · not cited

  • Pregnancy
  • No moxibustion
Depth: 0.8–1.2 cun
Angle: Perpendicular
⚠ Cautions: Contraindicated in pregnancy. Classical texts warn that moxibustion here may cause infertility in women — a caution worth honouring in patients who may wish to conceive.

Functions

  • Regulates the Triple Energiser and moves the water passages
  • Regulates qi and blood in the lower burner
  • Regulates the uterus

Indications

Oedema and difficult urinationabdominal pain and distensiondiarrhoeauterine bleeding and amenorrhoeahernia

Sources

  • World Health Organization. WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region. Manila: WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific, 2008. (Location.)
  • Focks C, ed. Atlas of Acupuncture. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, 2008. (Locating method and actions.)

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