Newly opened up relationship. Together for 6 years and open for 6 months.

While planning in dates, my partner (33M) feels a lot of sadness and anger in the lead up to it but usually feels fine after it’s passed. We check in after the date and always feel strongly connected afterwards. He feels happy that I’m having fun experiences and we also talk about how it’s going regularly.

Meanwhile when my partner goes on dates, I (31F) feel a lot of genuine excitement and joy for him to go explore. However he hasn’t had much success recently, either dead conversations or not getting follow up dates despite fun first ones. Seems dating for men is significantly more tricky and crushing out there.

For context, I initiated the open relationship and after a lot of discussion, we both decided to give it a go and explore what it could mean for both of us.

Is it normal for one person to struggle more than the other? Is it normal to have contrasting reactions? While I know that eventually we manage to resolve the negative feelings and move past it, the first reactions from my partner have made me doubt how realistic it is to keep trying.