Sharan A Abdul-Rahman, MD

Really terrible experience. I have a lot of experience in the medical field and went thinking I would support the solo practitioner. While I knew exactly what was going on, she still thought I was a «mystery.» She didn’t have a certain mediation in stock and had me go buy it for myself at Rite Aid and then come back to the office! I landed in the ER after a procedure, even though I saw her earlier that day to try to address what was going on. I followed up at Jefferson Women’s Center where they took great care of me. I wasn’t that «mysterious» to them at all.

I am brand new to Philly, and needed my birth control refilled by the end of the month. Called Jefferson Hospital to schedule an appointment. 30 minutes of being on hold later, the receptionist finally worked out an appointment for me in 3 days at Dr. Sharan Abdul-Rahman’s office. The receptionist mentioned that Dr. Rahman is usually fairly easy to get into see because she ONLY does GYN, instead of the OB-​GYN. I was somewhat skeptical due to her wide open availability… but… hey why not. The sooner the better, right?
Wrong.
I entered the building, elevatored up to the 3^rd floor, and walked into a small office with 3 waiting room chairs. The receptionist (Priya) was a doll. She quickly handed me the paperwork, checked my insurance info, and took my cash payment copay (they WILL charge you a $ 3 processing fee if you use credit card… as Rebecca S. just mentioned in the last review. So be sure to have cash/​check.) I waited for about 5 minutes tops before the 25-​year old nurse brought me back into this closet-​like space to take my blood pressure, and ask me about 40 health questions. Standard procedure. She really didn’t seem to care about my personal life or general wellbeing AT ALL. Rolling through her list of questions, listening to my answers while she stares at the computer screen, click. .click. click, next question. I had a couple concerns that I wanted to discuss with the doctor, but the nurse really didn’t seem to care. click. click… click. next question. height. weight. next. next. next. no smile or eye contact. It was awkward to say the very least.
And that was just the start! She led me to the exam room and said, go ahead and put the gown on and have a seat. Before I knew it, she shut the door and was back to her miserable day. Yeesh.
A couple minutes later, Dr. Rahman came in and shook my hand. (I thought to myself, «this might be an okay visit after all.» Dr. Rahman is a 50-​year old African American doctor who seems very nice at first. Until you start discussing your health concerns. I tried to explain how my PMS symptoms were getting awful, and since my mother had Endometriosis, I knew that I had to jump on any possible issues before they get worse. I couldn’t believe this, but she started almost arguing with me! I tried to explain slowly what was happening, and what I wanted to discuss (alternate birth control methods… the shot, IUD, the rod, etc.) Instead of listening to me, I felt this horrible argumentative defensive vibe from Dr. Rahman. She kept saying, «I don’t understand.» Aren’t you the doctor here, Dr. Rahman? I came to you to discuss a very sensitive matter regarding my health, and you just say that you don’t understand? Well, good God. Find me someone who can try to understand!!!
The exam went fine. She was quick and very professional.
At the end of the appointment, I also mentioned a bladder issue that I’ve been dealing with for years… and too embarrassed to deal with it before. would like to get it maybe checked out. She said, «talk to your primary physician. Take care» and walked out of the room. That’s it? I just told you that I’m new to Philly, and that’s all the help you can give?
What an ENORMOUS WASTE OF TIME. If you want an annual exam that doesn’t involve personal health concern discussion and ONLY want a fast annual exam for the prescription refill, than by all means. she’s great for you. I will never recommend Dr. Sharan Abdul-Rahman’s office to anyone, nor will they ever see me in that office again. No wonder she doesn’t deal with pregnant women/​OB. If I was pregnant, I would be FURIOUS at her lack of interest in my health concerns.
Never again. Ugh. Worst GYN visit I have ever had.

Without going into horrific detail about my experience I will say that I genuinely (maybe naively) thought that as a fellow black woman she would not treat me like a statistic and shove unnecessary pills down my throat (as has been my experience otherwise). At the end of the day she didn’t listen to any of my concerns, wrote me a prescription for the ONE thing I said I wasn’t interested in and tried to convince me that my PhD program was in fact a masters program (seriously).
I got some tests done and the tests were sent to the ONE lab that my insurance doesn’t cover which is absurd given that I chose her as a doctor based on her being within my insurance plan. My devastating visit cost me somewhere around $ 300 between copay, lab costs and $ 20+ parking.
I will say that she spent a good deal of time talking to me (even if it was condescendingly) and her receptionist is VERY sweet and helpful. The office is clean and well-​decorated and I’m sure somewhere deep down the doctor means well. I won’t be returning.

I’ve been seeing Dr. Rahman for the past three years and she’s A-​Ok in my experience. Going to the «lady doctor» is never really at the top of my list of things to do during the summer, but alas it must be done. About two years ago, I had a bit of a health scare, but she pretty much held my hand through all of it and gave me tons of information including taking time out of her day to personally email me what she knew on the topic.
The office is clean, her music is typical doctors office music, and her office staff is friendly. There is more often than not a backup in her office as it’s a small practice, but I suppose that’s to be expected. She is not terribly interested in your personal life and that’s ok, because I’d prefer not to have to see her more than once a year. She is gentle though and walks you through the exam slowly, a welcome change to hasty doctors who don’t care about the sensitivity of the nether-​regions.
Tip — always hang on to your receipts, last year there was a problem with her accounting books and her receptionist called trying to tell me that I owed money from an «in-​house» procedure, I took my receipt right over and it was taken care of right away. Also, don’t pay with a credit card, pay the co-​pay in cash or check because there’s a ridiculous $ 3 surcharge for processing your card.