Galanin (GAL) microinjected within the sexually dimorphic medial preoptic nucleus (MPN) facilitates male-typical sexual behaviors in the male rat, a response that requires the presence of testosterone. As in the male, GAL-immunoreactive cells located within the MPN of the female also concentrate gonadal steroids and become less immunoreactive after gonadectomy. Thus, to investigate sexual behaviors in the female and to determine whether effects are comparable to those obtained in the male, GAL was microinjected unilaterally within the MPN of female rats. We report that GAL stimulated female-typical lordosis behavior after estrogen priming, and that the effect was not due to general arousal as measured by nonspecific locomotor activities. In a separate experiment, GAL microinjected within the MPN dose-responsively increased mount frequencies and decreased mount latencies in testosterone-primed females. A higher dose of testosterone was required in females for this stimulation of male-typical sexual behavior than required in a previous experiment in males.