Thoughts on open relationships?

Hello everyone!

I know this is probably a strange topic to bring up here, but I was just wondering how common open relationships are as a solution to uneven libidos.

For my own background and experience, me (M35) and my partner (F34) met in highschool and became best friends. About 6 years ago, I finally worked up the courage to tell her about how I've had feelings for her for awhile, and it was the best decision I'd ever made. We've been happy and in lock step in just about everything ever since.

Going into the relationship, we did discuss sex early on. She was aware that I identified as demi, and I was aware that she was fully allo. We decided that we clicked in so many other ways, sex was something we could figure out together. While I do enjoy sex with my partner, I've also been frustrated by the fact that it still feels like my stars have to be aligned physically and mentally in order for me to really be in the mood. Frequency would range from a few times a month on the high end to once every few months on the low end.

Despite being a sexual person, my partner was always understanding and loving, and never pressured me into anything. I could still tell that feeling desired was something that she struggled with, and I tried my best to always reassure her and make her feel both loved and attractive. And despite her love and patience, I simply started to feel guilt that my wiring just wasn't going to allow me to satisfy her in a way that I know she was wired to crave.

So, I did another crazy thing and communicated my feelings to her. We had a long talk about options and feelings and boundaries and expectations. And now for the past year, we have been experimenting with a more open relationship style. We are still intimate with each other when I'm able to get myself together, but now once or twice a month, she has a friend that she goes to spend a night with and get what she needs (and I get to have a nice, quiet night curled up with the dog and comfort shows on repeat with no judgement lol).

I do get that this sort of solution is probably not for everyone, but for me personally, it's been a huge relief if I'm being honest. Anyone else have experience with this, good or bad?