Background <p>The study investigates the propagation characteristics of Love waves in complex layered media, a topic of importance in wave mechanics and geophysics, particularly in the context of stress-affected and orthotropic materials.</p> Objective <p>To analyze the dispersion behavior of Love waves in an isotropic homogeneous layer sandwiched between two initially stressed orthotropic media and to examine the impact of material parameters and stress conditions on wave propagation.</p> Methods <p>The separation of variables method, combined with appropriate analytical substitutions, is employed to derive the displacement fields in the layered media. Intrinsic boundary conditions are applied to obtain closed-form dispersion relations for the Love waves.</p> Results <p>Dispersion relations are presented graphically, illustrating the dependence of normalized phase velocity on normalized wavenumber for various elastic parameters. The effects of orthotropy and initial stresses on wave propagation are analyzed in detail.</p> Conclusions <p>The study provides a comprehensive understanding of the influence of elastic parameters and initial stress on the propagation of Love waves. Several special cases of the dispersion relation are derived and discussed, offering insights into specific configurations of the layered media.</p>