In the foreground on the floor, there is an arrangement of items: a cloth, a bed warmer, a brazier, and a yellow basket containing a glass bottle.

Laurinda Dixon introduced this second interpretation in 1995 with her book Perilous Chastity: Women and Illness in Pre-Enlightenment Art and Medicine.

[3] Chapman states that although art historians, including Simon Schama, have researched in depth and searched wide to extrapolate a possible hidden meaning, the possibility of Steen's doctor's visit paintings having a deeper meaning than the surface-level elements that lead the viewer toward the conclusion of lovesickness, is highly unlikely.

This affliction, first diagnosed in ancient times, was understood by the Dutch through vernacular texts and thought to be caused by a wandering uterus in women.

[4] This argument is further explained by the reality that although Hysteria, or "lovesickness" was commonly occurring amongst men as well in the 17th century, Steen and other genre painters depicting similar scenes almost exclusively commented only on the way it affected women.

[3] Iconographic symbols such as the Cupid statue, and the bedwarmer are also included in the double meaning, alluding to love or wandering womb syndrome.

[7] The tapestry located on the back wall of the painting, although eroded is confirmed to be a scene of the god Apollo playing the violin.

This iconographic motif was incorporated by Steen into the piece to display a common remedy at the time for melancholia, the medieval humor responsible for depression.

Laurinda Dixon notes the connection between Doctor's visit paintings inclusion of animals such as dogs and horses, and the natural state of a woman's womb, which in 17th-century Dutch society was still believed to be wild and difficult to tame.

Dixon notes that the viewers visibility of the hot coals symbolizes the unquenched passion of the lovesick woman, whose womb has wandered due to abstinence.

[4] Apart from the humorous genre popular at the time, Melencolia I, an engraving by Albrecht Dürer from 1514 is thought to be a source of Inspiration for the composition and visual elements of Steen's creation of The Lovesick Maiden.

Melancholy was believed in the medieval period to be the worst of the four humors but such thinking changed into a more positive outlook when it was rebranded during Renaissance times to insinuate genius traits in an artist.

The inspiration and similarities between Melencolia I and The Lovesick Maiden can be understood by examining the composition of the engraving; A woman whose face has been cast with a look of gloom, leaning on one arm, and the inclusion of both the cupid statue and a sleeping dog nearby[10].

In emergency cases, they would attend to patients in their care, but in general, people in need desiring a home visit, and those without a personal physician were left to the services of the many specialized barber-surgeons or travelling quacks.