Women's suspicions have finally been confirmed. Men really are more forgetful than women!

And men who forget birthdays and anniversaries now have a ready-made excuse - their forgetfulness is not really their fault, but is down to a gender characteristic proven by scientific research!

Scientists in Norway asked nine questions about how well people think they remembered things as a part of a large study and collected answers from over 48,000 people.

They found that men forget things much more than women, and this forgetfulness tends to happen with both younger and older men.

The participants were asked how often they had problems remembering things, whether they had problems remembering names and dates, if they could remember what they did year previously and if they were able to remember specific details from past conversations.

It was found that the men in the study reported the most problems for eight out of the nine memory questions asked.

"We have speculated a lot about why men report more frequent problems with remembering than women do, but have not been able to find an explanation. This is still an unsolved mystery," the researchers said.

It was found that women do not remember everything, but have the same problems with remembering as men do. However women have the problem to a lesser extent.

The study also found that, among both sexes, people who are more highly educated tend to forget less than those with less of an education. Also, people with anxiety or depression problems forget more than others do.

The researchers from the University of Science and Technology in Trondheim say further studies would be needed to assess whether people who self-reported problems with remembering at a young age are also at a higher risk of developing dementia/Alzheimer's in later life.

The study is published in the journal BMC Psychology.