According to a story in the Guardian,  a University of London Institute of Education study reports suggests that absent-mindedness is primarily a male problem.

In the study of nearly 10,000 middle-age individuals,

Men performed significantly more poorly in the verbal memory tests: particularly on the delayed memory test…

As noted in Slate,

another study has shown that during menopause, women do not do so well.

All this leads me to think Google is screening out boomers from applying for free gmail accounts -

Typical of the security questions:

Your first phone number

Hell, what’s my current phone number!?